3/8/20 (Lakeville, CT) – Each year poses new challenges; this year was no other. With three, rather than one or two, weeks between the Eastern and the New England Championships, student-athletes were placed in an even less advantageous position in trying to go best times at both meets.
Impressively, though, Andover swimmers and divers entered 49 different events across the two meets, and they achieved personal bests in 47 of them (the 48th was a miss by only .02). A 96% success rate is remarkable.
In addition to the personal bests, Andover swimmers and divers also broke eight school, pool, meet, or class records—and went under four other established records but placed second. Andover swimmers also surpassed the All-American standard nineteen times.
Among so much success, it seems apt to highlight the performance of the members of the Class of 2020:
Max Hunger ’20 established new Pool and School records in the 500 Freestyle during the Saturday preliminaries. In the Sunday finals, he responded to two 2nd-place finishes in his individual events with a blistering 20.1 split in the 50 Freestyle—the fastest by any Andover swimmer ever.
Johann Asmus Leon, who launched his diving career only this year, learned and executed eleven dives and placed 13th.
Anthony Minickiello, after establishing best times in the 200 and 500 Freestyles at Easterns, turned around at New Englands and achieved a best time in the 100 Butterfly. Because it was in the best interests of the team, Anthony swam the Fly and the 500 at New Englands just 25-minutes apart.
Brandon Garcia concludes his one-year career at Andover as the 2nd-fastest on the all-time list in the 50 Free, 5th in the 100 Free, and 4thin the 100 Breast. Unfortunately, an injury during the finals prevented him from going even faster.
In his last swim for Andover, Riku Tanaka earned a personal best while leading-off the 400 Freestyle Relay in 48.84. Riku was also a top-8 finalist in both the 200 and 500 Freestyles.
By the end of New Englands, co-captain Arnold Su had competed in 6 of the 8 individual events at either the Eastern or New England Championships during his career. This remarkable versatility yielded personal bests in the 100 Fly and the 100 Breast. He is a top 10 all-time performer in the 50 Free (5th), 100 Free (2nd), 200 Free (6th), 100 Breast (3rd),100 Fly (3rd), and 200 IM (4th).
Finally, co-captain Sam Donchi had the meet of the life. At New Englands, Sam was the only swimmer in the boys meet who won every time he entered the water, a feat not accomplished since Michael Camarda in 2014. After being 2nd on the all-time list in the 200 and 500 Frees, the 100 Back, and the 100 Fly, Sam finally got his own School record: the 200 IM!
With the conclusion of the season, it is not hyperbole to identify the 2020 Swimming & Diving Team, as well as the Class of 2020, among the strongest Andover teams and classes of the last 70 years. Of the 13 School Records, the 2020 squad owns 10! (The only remaining ones are last year’s 200 Medley Relay, Lance Freiman’s ’19 100 Fly, and Tim Wynter’s ’14 100 Back). It is a remarkable group—6 swimmers under 1:00 in the 100 Breast alone—and we will see how this year’s national rankings pan out in the early Fall.
200 Medley Relay
Sam Donchi ’20 (23.13)
Yubo Jin ’21 (25.43)
Arnold Su ’20 (22.33)
Brandon Garcia ’20 (20.70)
1:31.59
1st / POOL RECORD / ALL AMERICAN
3rd Fastest Performers All Time
Hank Yang ‘22 (27.81)
Brendon Fang ‘22 (27.94)
Trey Wolfe ‘23 (24.54)
Jay Pae ‘23 (23.80)
1:44.09
2nd Place “B” Relay
200 Freestyle
Max Hunger ‘20
1:37.53
2nd / Faster than Pool and Meet Records / ALL AMERICAN
Prelim: 1:38.92 / ALL AMERICAN
Top Performer All Time
Marcus Lee ‘20
1:40.96
4th / Personal Best
7th Performer All Time
Riku Tanaka ‘20
1:45.63
7th
Hank Yang ‘22
1:51.80
200 Individual Medley
Sam Donchi ‘20
1:49.34
1st / SCHOOL RECORD / ALL AMERICAN / Personal Best
Prelim: 1:50.43 / ALL AMERICAN / Personal Best
Christopher Xia ‘23
1:55.25
5th
(Prelim: 1:55.04)
7th Performer All Time
Max Fang ‘22
1:59.51
10th
16th Performer All Time
Brendon Fang ‘22
2:01.49
12th in Prelims but forced scratch under league rules
19th Performer All Time
50 Freestyle
Brandon Garcia ‘20
21.05
2nd
Prelim: 20.89 / ALL AMERICAN
2nd Performer All Time
Alexander Grande ‘21
22.13
11th
Prelim: 22.00 / Personal Best
Ralph Lam ‘22
22.65
Yubo Jin ‘21
23.05 / Personal Best
Diving:
Zack Peng ‘21
502.25
1st / SCHOOL RECORD / Personal Best
Bennett Pease ‘21
278.10
7th / Personal Best
Johann Asmus Leon ‘20
230.90
13th / Personal Best
100 Butterfly
Arnold Su ‘20
49.55
3rd / ALL AMERICAN
Prelim: 49.54 / ALL AMERICAN / Personal Best
3rd Performer All Time
Marcel Liu ‘23
51.51
5th
Prelim: 50.44 / JUNIOR RECORD / Personal Best
6th Performer All Time
Anthony Minickiello ‘20
51.72
6th
Prelim: 51.37 / Personal Best
9th Performer All Time
Gregor Deveau ‘21
56.09
100 Freestyle
Marcus Lee ‘21
45.34
1st / ALL AMERICAN
Prelim: 45.58 / ALL AMERICAN
Top Performer All Time
Christopher Xia ‘23
47.73
8th
Prelim: 47.64 / Personal Best
Ralph Lam ‘22
48.70
13th
Prelim: 48.69
Max Fang ‘22
51.06 / Personal Best
500 Freestyle
Max Hunger ‘20
4:31.01
2nd / ALL AMERICAN
Prelim: 4:27.72 / SCHOOL & POOL RECORDS / ALL AMERICAN / Personal Best
Anthony Minickiello ‘20
4:47.32
5th
4th Performer All Time
Riku Tanaka ‘20
4:51.41
7th
10th Performer All Time
Jay Pae ‘23
4:59.65
12th in Prelims but forced scratch under league rules / Personal Best
200 Freestyle Relay
Brandon Garcia ’20 (21.28)
Alexander Grande ’21 (21.09)
Marcus Lee ’21 (20.46)
Max Hunger ’20 (20.15)
1:22.98
2nd / ALL AMERICAN / Faster than Pool and Meet Records /
2nd Fastest Performers All Time
Marcel Liu ‘23 (22.66)
Gregor Deveau ‘21 (22.71)
Ralph Lam ’22 (22.52)
Riku Tanaka ’20 (22.05)
1:29.94
1st Place “B” Relay
100 Backstroke
Sam Donchi ‘20
49.85
1st / ALL AMERICAN
Prelim: 49.54 / ALL AMERICAN / Personal Best
2nd Performer All Time
Marcel Liu ‘23
54.49
8th
Prelim: 53.99
10th Performer All Time
Gregor Deveau ‘21
56.42
14th
Brendon Fang ‘22
57.81 / Personal Best
100 Breaststroke
Arnold Su ‘20
56.28
2nd / ALL AMERICAN / Personal Best
Prelim: 56.64 / ALL AMERICAN
3rd Performer All Time
Yubo Jin ‘21
56.38
3rd / ALL AMERICAN / Personal Best
Prelim 56.32 / ALL AMERICAN
Top Performer All Time
Brandon Garcia ‘20
1:03.45
8th
Prelim: 56.99 / Personal Best
4th Performer All Time
Trey Wolfe ‘23
1:01.41
16th in Prelims but forced scratch under league rules / Personal Best
400 Freestyle Relay
Max Hunger ’20 (45.54)
Marcus Lee ’21 (44.95)
Arnold Su ’20 (46.29)
Sam Donchi ’20 (45.44)
3:02.22
1st / POOL & MEET RECORDS / ALL AMERICAN
3rd Fastest Performers All Time
Riku Tanaka ’20 (48.84)
Christopher Xia ’23 (48.02)
Ralph Lam ’22 (48.26)
Anthony Minickiello ’20 (48.91)
3:14.03
1stPlace “B” Relay
Scores
457 Andover
372 Brunswick
277 Exeter
216 Loomis
208 Deerfield
182 Suffield
155 Choate
142 Hotchkiss
126 Hopkins
63 NMH
36 Milton
