Andover Boys Swimming & Diving is leading to an end of the season with their last meet being a win of 102-79 against Loomis Chaffee after taking it easy and preparing for their final upcoming meets. The team’s record now stands at 3-0.
According to Andrew Kim ’23, the Loomis meet was more relaxed and laid back compared to others, but the team continued to put all their effort in. The team’s main focus was to have fun and enjoy the last couple weeks of the season together.
Kim said, “I think that compared to other meets, this was actually a lot more laid back—I mean, obviously we were still serious about getting the work done, but it’s kind of that weird place where it’s not the beginning of the season but it’s not too late towards the end of the season where it’s getting really stressful, so I think this was something that we were doing mostly for enjoying, just being at a meet and just competing.”
Despite the fun, laid back, and energetic atmosphere of the meet, there were still highlights. According to Dylan Herlihy ’22, one of the team members, Christopher Xia ’23 raised his personal bar at this meet.
Herlihy said, “For me, as a diver, I can really only emphasize the diving, but I would say Christopher Xia—he broke a record so that was definitely a plus for the swimming, that was very impressive.”
It was not just Xia who stood out—it was the team as a whole. According to Daniel Mair ’24, seeing the team work together in group events was impressive.
“I would say the relay; everyone had worked together honestly to have this be their best efforts, and they all worked very well cohesively,” said Mair.
According to Kim, the team has developed a close bond with one another as they all work together to complete the season on a high note. Despite having good camaraderie with one another, the team has been able to maintain competitiveness.
Kim said, “I think maybe the fact that we’re so overly competitive with each other, it’s kind of like a double-edged sword in that like we can really push each other to really be our best.”
Boys Swimming & Diving seeks to remain undefeated as it will take Phillips Exeter Academy away.
