Andover Boys Swimming’s 400 Free Relay team, which consisted of Joe Faller ’14, Michael Camarda ’14, Eric Benca ’12 and Jun Oh ’12, broke Choate’s previous pool record by 15 hundredths of a second.
The new record of 3:12.34 is the fourth fastest 400 Free Relay time in Andover history. This is the third consecutive week that an Andover Boys Swimming relay team has broken a record.
Oh said of his relay team’s performance, “Before the race, Coach [David] Fox called the team over and told us that we had to win the race to win the meet. To have the whole meet on your shoulder is quite a heavy burden. But not only was it just to win the meet, it was to continue our third undefeated season.”
The relay team’s win proved essential in Andover scraping out a 96-89 victory against previously undefeated Deerfield.
Oh said, “In the end, we all got our heads together and concentrated. We executed our starts; our splits were great.”
Benca added, “We didn’t even know that we had bro
ken the pool record until a few minutes after the end of the meet, but it was really just icing on the cake after the victory.”
However, Deerfield’s 200 Medley Relay squad opened the meet with a victory. Andover’s team of Co-Captain Derrick Choi ’12, Andrew Wilson ’12, Tim Wynter ’14 and David Cao ’14 finished second in 1:38.59.
Before the start of the meet, Coach Fox decided to break up the relay team that had established pool records during the previous two meets.
Cao said, “[Coach] Fox broke up our relay since he knew Deerfield’s team did not have as much depth as ours did, meaning that they only had a couple fast swimmers while our whole team was more balanced. Fox thought that our recent times in the medley relay would force Deerfield to put Oscar Miao, their top sprinter, into the other two relays.”
After Deerfield won the 200 Free, Oh claimed a first place in the 200 Individual Medley with a time of 1:56.04. Heading into the diving event, the two schools were knotted at 31.
Deerfield won the diving event and garnered an 11 point lead, but fourth place finisher Kade Call ’14 earned his best score of his season.
Call said, “I never expected too much from myself, since their divers were really good. I feel I am developing quickly as a diver, and hopefully I will have improved enough to be able to earn more points against teams like Deerfield at Interschols.”
Oh triumphed in the 500 Free in 4:38.42, and the 200 Free Relay team of Wynter, Peng, Faller and Camarda maintained the momentum with a victory in 1:30.27.
Camarda said, “It was one of the best dual meets I have ever been to. Deerfield really put up a good fight, right until the very end.”
Andover led for the first time of the day after Wynter won the 100 Back stroke in 52.45, and its one point lead remained as Andover headed into the pivotal 400 Free Relay. According to Coach Fox, the team “fought through the incredible challenge posed by the excellent team from Deerfield.”
Andover will look to continue its undefeated season at Hopkins this Saturday.
