The Andover Girls Relay teams took both first and third in the 200 Medley Relay to spark two strong wins against both Northfield Mount Heron and Milton Academy, and get back on the winning track. The meet was held at NMH in Gill, MA with a final score of 65-29 against NMH, and 83-17 against Milton. The team continued to dominate throughout the meet and managed to finish first in eight of the ten events. With only two members of the team allowed to swim in each event, as opposed to the usual three, the day was an overall success for swimmers and supporting team members alike. Notably, Celia Lewis ’10 won the 500 Freestyle in a season best time. Devon Zimmerling ’07 expressed her thoughts on the meet, “After two tough losses to Choate and Loomis, a strong victory over Milton and NMH was much needed and very reassuring. We had some great swims, and after the exciting win, everyone is reenergized for Interschols.” To begin the meet, Andover won both first and third in the 200 Medley Relay with the team of Veronica Faller ’09, Selena Casha ’09, Annie Glancy ’09 and Peyton Morss ’10 wining in 1:56.80. The 200 Freestyle was a 1-2 sweep for the team when Captain Carly Villareal ’07 barely out-touched teammate Lewis in 2:05.27. Lewis was only a third of a second behind when she came in at 2:05.58. Next, Andover took both first and second again in the 200 Individual Medley with Casha coming in first at 2:15.10 and Glancy a few second behind her in 2:22.03. Andover continued to dominate when freshman Morss won the 50 Freestyle in 26.32 and Erika Roddy ‘07 placed second in 26.41. With diving unavailable, the meet flowed straight into the 100 Butterfly where Glancy and Greta Martin ’09 swam beautifully in 1:04.22 and 1:04.62, respectively. Though Andover did not win the 100 Freestyle, both Roddy and Morss swam strong. The 500 Freestyle was another 1-2 win for Andover when Lewis won the event in 5:31.42. Captain Villareal placed second in a time of 5:37.93, which was only a second off her season best from two weeks ago. After the 500 was the second of three relays for the day all of which Andover finished first and third. The ‘A’ 200 Freestyle relay was swum by Casha, Morss, Villareal, and Roddy who all swam under 27 seconds for a final time of 1:46.48. Following the relay was the 100 Backstroke, where Faller swam only .42 second off her season best with a final time of 1:06.47. Martin also swam well in the event with a season best time of 1:10.4. As usual Casha dominated the 100 Breast in 1:11.05, only .2 seconds away from her seasonal best. Lastly, Andover swam a victorious 400 Free Relay with the team of Lewis, Glancy, Villareal and Roddy winning in 3:54.13. Faller noted, “Even though we couldn’t swim everyone, the whole team came to route us on and the meet went really well. The two wins were a great confidence boost for us, and now we’re practicing hard to take on whatever this season throws at us.” The rest of the meets this season will be hosted at Andover, beginning with Deerfield this coming weekend, as Andover hopes to begin a winning streak.
