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

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