Lilybet MacRae ’13 shattered school, pool and her own personal dive records with an incredible score of 323.20 in Andover Girls Swimming and Diving’s meet against Suffield Academy on Wednesday.
Then, in the 200 Free Relay by the team of Amy Zhao ’14, Co-Captain Julia Torabi ’12, Emily McKinnon ’13 and Danielle Liu ’14 finished with a time of 1:39.61 to set new school and pool records. As a team, Andover came from behind to triumph over Suffield Academy on Wednesday by a score of 98-88.
Andover’s 200 Free Relay team broke the previous record of 1:39.88 held since 2005 by Alyssa Hill ’06, Emily Brenner ’06, Erika Roddy ’07 and Hee-Jin Chang ’05, members of Andover’s New England Champion team.
Andover slowly gained momentum throughout the meet. Andover placed third in the first race of the day, the 200 Medley Relay. Torabi, McKinnon, Miranda An ’15 and Hailey Novis ’13 finished immediately behind two Suffield teams.
The team picked up its energy for the next race, the 200 Free. Liu placed first, Julia Smachlo ’13 laced second and Co-Captain Molly Levene ’12 placed sixth in 1:55.66, 1:57.85 and 2:03.39, respectively.
In the 200 IM, An took first place with a time of 2:14.96, and Torabi came in third at 2:16.75.
Levene said, “An’s win was pleasantly surprising, because it was her first time swimming [that event] all season.” However, at this point in the meet, Andover still trailed behind Suffield 21-25.
Andover continued to show improvement, with Zhao, Novis and Qiqi Ren ’15 finishing 1-3-4 in the next event, the 50 Free.
Despite MacRae’s exceptionally high scores, Andover was only winning by a slim two points (40-38) after the diving event.
In the 100 Backstroke, Andover had a 2-3-4 finish by Lauren Conte ’14 with 1:05.31, Torabi with 1:05.55 and Lydia Azaret ’12 with 1:06.49, a result which kept Andover in the lead with 86-70.
Suffield proceeded to take first, second and fourth in the 100 Breast, closing the gap between the two scores to 90-82. Ren took third place with a time of 1:13.30.
In the last event of the day, Andover’s 400 Relay team broke another pervious school record with a time of 3:36.91. Liu, An, Novis and Zhao made up the team, which finished first and ended the day with Andover leading by 10 points.
The team remains undefeated this season and has a record of 6-0-0. Next Saturday, Andover will race against Exeter.
Levene said, “I am really looking forward to the Exeter meet, which I think will be really exciting. It will also be fun to celebrate 100 years of Andover swimming, and welcome alumni back to the pool.”
With only the one regular season meet left, Andover is poised to take the New England championship title this year for the first time in three years.
