Saturday 1/13 – Andover: 105, Suffield Academy: 74
Andover Girls Swimming and Diving competed against Suffield Academy on Saturday, securing a win in its second meet of the season.
In preparation for the meet, Andover broke off into different groups to specifically target each type of event. According to Chloe Ru ’27, this greatly pushed the team toward its success.
“Leading up to our meet, during training we often split into different groups, so we had some swimmers do mid-distant sets because they were swimming distance during the meet, like longer events. And then for the other group we had sprinters be in one group, sprint practice for the meet. That helped practice better for our competition,” said Ru.
After a two and a half hour drive to Suffield [Academy], Hannah Song ’27 noted the energy that Co-Captain Molly MacKinnon ’24, Co-Captain Elissa Kim ’24, and Co-Captain Isabella An ’24 brought to the meet. She shared their ability to support the team, while also prioritizing respect towards the other team.
Song said, “The individuals that stood out the most were Molly, Elissa, and Izzy. Because they took care of the team, [they] congratulated everyone. They were the ones that got us hyped up, they helped us get ready for the meet and loosen up after [a] two hour and a half drive and then they always maintained the sportsmanship and were encouraging.”
According to Song, Suffield [Academy] also displayed good sportsmanship, through positive accolades and congratulations. She also noted the intense concentration shown by both teams.
“The atmosphere of the event was really nice because even Suffield [Academy] swimmers had really good sportsmanship. They would say, ‘good job’ or after your heat they would congratulate each other, and they were just really nice people overall. I feel like everyone was really focused,” said Song.
In terms of Diving, Sydney Jan ’26 emphasized the importance of every detail. She noted that the sport requires immense focus and flawless technique.
“The thing about diving that’s different to other sports is that it’s a competition of several crucial moments rather than just one or two. Every time someone gets onto the diving board, the crowd and everyone else falls silent. The only sound you hear is the slight twang of the diving board as it goes up and down, then the sudden pop right when the diver jumps off. Each dive requires intense concentration and since the scores are released after the meet, it is crucial that we try to perfect every dive,” wrote Jan in an email to The Phillipian.
Ru noted that despite dominant performance, the team wasn’t flawless in all aspects of the meet. She mentioned that Suffield Academy’s pool was much different than the Pan Athletic Center, and it led to some mistakes during the meet.
“As for weaknesses, honestly this is technical, but we’re not really used to the Suffield [Academy] pool because it was a lot different from Pan [Athletic Center]. So for a lot of events, for the turns, we messed up because the pool was really different from the pool we were used to. I think we’re going to have to adapt better in a technical way,” said Ru.
Looking ahead, Ru shared the team’s goals to improve endurance and power. It plans to utilize its off week to get more training in.
Ru said, “As for the upcoming week, I don’t think we have a swim meet this weekend, so we’re probably going to work on more strength and stamina training to get our strength up and do some technical work, especially on turns because my coach was talking about how we needed a lot of practice on turns because these small things can influence your time a lot during races. So we’re probably going to work on turns and strength and stamina training because our next meet is on I think next Sunday.”
Girls Swimming will compete away against Deerfield next Saturday.
