For the first time in the league’s 45 years, the Boys Varsity Swimming and Diving team captured the New England Prep School Championships. Sparked by Brendan Deveney ’09, Curtis Hon ’10, Brendon Sullivan ’07 and Co-Captain Ryan Ferguson ’07, members of the outstanding 200 Medley Relay team, Andover received an early lead and enough momentum to carry it though the meet. Although the meet hosted 27 teams, the fight for the title quickly became a battle between Andover and reigning champions Exeter. Andover secured the win with a record-breaking total of 382, 60 points ahead of Exeter. However, the large margin in scores did not reflect the day’s intensity. Choate finished in third place with 192 points, just ahead of Hotchkiss, Loomis-Chaffee and Deerfield. Head Coach Jacques Hugon ’79 could not have been more pleased: “The boys swam exceptionally well, essentially winning the meet in the morning by squeezing their way into point-scoring championship and consolation final positions. The evening brought some welcome surprises, with two unexpected championship relay wins, and gritty performances from everyone on the squad to maximize our points total.” Conor McAuliffe ’10 said, “This year, going into Interschols, we knew we had a great team of swimmers and would have a good chance of winning the meet. Our team knew that Exeter would be tough to overcome, but we also knew that if we performed as we had over the season, we could beat them.” Andover did that and more. “Our team performed the best we did all season by far. Many of the swimmers who were supposed to place about 25th overall made it into the top 16 to get into consolation final.” William Faulkner ’09 commented. The meet began on a promising note when Deveney, Hon, Sullivan and Co-Captain Ferguson captured the first title of the evening, the 200 Medley Relay. Completing the race with a time of 1:39.19, Andover was rewarded first place after Suffield, who had originally won the event, was disqualified. Taking a quick lead, Bob Divers ’07 swam to victory in the 200 Freestyle with a time of 1:44.36. Kevin Zhai ’08 took seventh in 1:49.46. Also scoring beneficial points, McAuliffe and Co-Captain Howie Kalter ’07 finished 11th and 12th. Diving Captain Corey Psoinos ’07 captured the New England Diving title with a school record 422.90 points. In yet another demonstration of Andover’s strength, Deveney finished third in the 100 Backstroke in 54.34 with Julian Azaret ’08, not far behind, taking fifth. Lee-Kramer also contributed by capturing 13th. Hon swam a beautiful race in the 100 Breaststroke for third place in 1:00.48 while Jow and Larry Zhou ’09 took 11th and 14th. Co-Captain Kalter, McColl, Deveney and Divers ended the meet on a high note, winning the final race, the 400 Freestyle Relay, in 3:14.45.
