The winter athletics campaign concluded this past Sunday and Phillips Academy added more hardware to an already successful season for Big Blue teams.
Less than two weeks removed from the strong showings of wrestling and squash at Nationals, three Andover teams—girls’ basketball, girls’ hockey, and boys’ hockey, qualified for NEPSAC tournament postseason play, and swimming traveled to Hotchkiss for the New England Prep Division 1 Championships, March 8-9.
After the final horn sounded on Sunday evening and the New England prep winter season concluded, Andover had much to be proud of as boys’ swimming and hockey were champions, and girls’ hockey and swimming were runners-up.
Boys’ Swimming with the New England Division 1 championship trophy
Nine-peat! Boys’ varsity swimming maintained its place at the top of New England prep swimming by winning their ninth straight Division 1 title this past weekend at the Hotchkiss School.
This championship weekend came just three weeks after the team won their third consecutive team title at the prestigious Eastern Championships (recap), so hopes for continued success were high.
Coach David Fox shared some individual highlights, “Across the weekend, Andover had six record-breaking performances. Lincoln Tomlinson ’27 broke two 10th-grade Records, the 50 Free with a time of 20.79 and his own record in the 100 Fly with a time of 49.43. In the prelims of the 100 Breaststroke, Daniel Seong ’25 swam 54.80, breaking both the Meet and Pool records. In the next heat, Pippin Kantakom ’25 swam 54.61, breaking both the records Daniel had just set.
A strong nominee for Andover’s swimmer of the meet is Oliver Feng ’25. After hovering around the same best times for months, Oliver broke through. He swam a 20.55 in the 50 Free, placing first, a 45.01 in the 100 Free, placing second, and led off the Medley Relay in a blistering 23.0. These times place Oliver third on Andover’s All Time list in the 50, second in the 100 Free, and third in the Back.”
Coach David Fox's full recap of the championship weekend, including results.
Boys’ Hockey with the NEPSAC Large School championship trophy
In their run to the New England Prep Large School title, #3 seeded boys’ varsity hockey outscored their opponents, 17-1. Big Blue defeated #6 Trinity-Pawling in the quarterfinals, 6-0, #2 Avon Old Farms in the semis, 7-0, and #5 seed Westminster in the title game, 4-1.
While not its first time in the postseason, the championship was a first for the program and the exciting and dominant fashion in which they played earned accolades that increased each round.
Coach Paul Tortorella ’80 expressed his pride in the team’s incredible postseason play, “The boys played their hearts out, it was beautiful hockey, truly wonderful to see. This does not happen without an unselfish and dedicated senior class, including our PG Collins. The leadership these boys displayed—I will never forget what they did for the school.”
Boys’ hockey finished the season with a record of 20-9-3.
A photo gallery from the championship game.
Coach Paul Tortorella’s full recap of the tournament.
Video highlights: quarterfinals, semifinals, and championship
Girls’ Hockey celebrates their semifinal shutout win at Williston
Since NEPSAC added the Elite Eight bracket to the girls’ hockey postseason in 2020 the top eight teams, regardless of school size, have competed for the title. Andover has not only qualified for the Elite Eight each year but has always advanced to at least the semifinals.
This year marked Andover's third trip to the Elite Eight championship and its third time facing Loomis Chaffee in the tournament, defeating the Pelicans in 2020 and 2022. Big Blue was the 5th seed and their postseason path back to this season’s title game included a 2-1 win at #4 Nobles and a 3-0 win at #1 seeded Williston.
The contest did not start well for the Big Blue as Loomis scored three unanswered goals, but Andover battled back to pull within 4-3 in the third period before finally losing 5-3.
Girls’ hockey finished the season with a record of 17-5-4.
Girls’ Swimming with their New England Division 1 second place trophy
Girls’ swimming has been no stranger to the postseason podium and the squad found themselves there again this season finishing strong in second place, with a higher number of total points than at last year's championships.
Coach Hillary Kavanaugh, shared that this year’s postseason success was, “Thanks in part to newcomers Katherine Feng ’27, Rosie Pan ’28, and Sophia Tolokh ’28, all of whom made finals! A special congratulations to Caroline Romano ’26, who dropped over 6 seconds in her 200 IM to make it to finals for the first time! And congratulations to Ariana Zhao ’25, finishing first in the 200 IM with a season-best time of 2:03.23, and second place finish in the backstroke.”
Kavanaugh also highlighted the 400 free relay squad, “Ariana Zhao ’25, Alice Zha ’25, Chloe Ru ’27, and Hannah Song ’27 blew the competition out of the water to secure first place. ALL members of the 400 relay also dropped time to secure best times in their individual events!”