88% Personal Bests, 24 All-American Performances, 23 Records Surpassed, including a Legendary One, & 2nd Consecutive Eastern Championship
(Lancaster, PA) – For the sixth time in program history, the Boys’ Swimming & Diving Team competed at the Eastern Swimming & Diving Championships. Considered among the most prestigious high-school meets in the nation, Easterns has seen more national records established at it than any other. Last year, Andover became the first New England team to win the event—historically dominated by national powerhouses such as Bolles, Germantown, Mercersberg, and Peddie—and this year, Andover prepared for a repeat. The team did not disappoint.
Over the two-day meet, Andover Swimmers and Divers achieved 37 best-ever performances, for a remarkable 88% success rate. 19 out of 21 members of the team placed among the top 24 in at least one event, earning points, and the other two just missed out. Andover Swimmers surpassed an All-American standard 24 different times, and they tied or surpassed a record 23 different times:
Eastern: 1
New England: 3*
School: 9
Upper: 4
Junior: 4
Pool: 2
*While Andover broke the New England record in the 200 Free Relay, a great foursome from Brunswick went even faster.
While every performance deserves a special highlight, two were particularly satisfying.
Since before arriving at Andover, Senior Anthony Minickiello’s best-time in the 500 Freestyle hovered just above the 4:40 barrier year after year. After four years of hard work, and in his final swim at Easterns, Anthony swam 4:36.22! For many alums and current members of the team, this was the most emotional moment of the meet.
The other performance was also a long time coming. In 1991, a Bolles squad, led by four-time Olympic medalist and four-time Olympian, Gustavo Borges, established a National and Eastern Record in the 400 Free Relay of 2:59.98. While a handful of schools have surpassed that National Record in the last 29 years, no Eastern School has, although in 2013, a relay from Peddie tied the record. For the past few years, Andover has had the goal of going under 3:00 and breaking that record. And in the last event of this year’s meet, Marcus Lee ’21, Arnold Su ’20, Sam Donchi ’20, and Max Hunger ’20 finally did it: 2:59.81.
You may WATCH the relay.
Complete Results:
200 Medley Relay
Sam Donchi ’20 (23.07) (3rd Performer All-Time)
Yubo Jin ’21 (25.33)
Marcel Liu ’23 (22.85)
Alexander Grande ’21 (21.58) (18th Performer All-Time)
1:32.83
5th Place / All-American
5th All-Time
Prelim:
Donchi (23.43)
Jin (25.87)
Liu (22.26) (3rd Performer All-Time)
Riku Tanaka ’20 (22.09)
1:33.65 / All-American
Gregor Deveau ’21 (26.16) (12th Performer All-Time)
Trey Wolfe ’23 (27.37) (11th Performer All-Time)
Christopher Xia ’23 (23.96) (11th Performer All-Time)
Alexander Grande (21.60)
1:39.09
200 Freestyle
Max Hunger ‘20
1:37.29 / All-American
1st Place
(Prelim: 1:36.82 / New England, School & Pool Records/ All-American / Personal Best)
Anthony Minickiello ‘20
1:44.52
15th Place
(Prelim: 1:43.64 / Personal Best)
11th Performer All-Time
Ralph Lam ‘22
1:46.29
23rd Place
(Prelim: 1:46.23 / Personal Best)
Riku Tanaka ‘20
1:47.13
24th Place
(Prelim: 1:45.73)
Hank Yang ‘22
1:49.10 / Personal Best
Jay Pae ‘23
1:52.21
200 Individual Medley
Arnold Su ‘20
1:51.77
4th Place / Personal Best
(Prelim: 1:52.47 / Personal Best)
4th Performer All-Time
Christopher Xia ‘23
1:54.26
10th Place / Junior Record / Personal Best)
(Prelim: 1:55.27 / Junior Record / Personal Best)
7th Performer All-Time
Max Fang ‘22
1:57.96
20th Place / Personal Best
(Prelim: 1:58.94 / Personal Best)
16th Performer All-Time
Brendon Fang ‘22
1:59.16
23rd Place
(Prelim 1:58.66 / Personal Best)
19th Performer All-Time
Yubo Jin ‘21
2:00.60
50 Freestyle
Brandon Garcia ‘20
20.81
5th Place / School Record / All-American / Personal Best)
(Prelim: 21.23 / Personal Best)
2nd Performer All-Time
Marcus Lee ‘21
20.89
6th Place / Tied Upper Record / All-American / Personal Best)
(Prelim: 21.03 / Personal Best)
Tied 4th Performer All-Time
Alexander Grande ‘21
22.49
23rd Place
(Prelim: 22.21 / Personal Best)
100 Butterfly
Sam Donchi ‘20
48.86
4th Place / All-American / Personal Best)
(Prelim: 48.87 / All-American / Personal Best)
2nd Performer All-Time
Marcel Liu ‘23
51.51
7th Place
(Prelim: 51.19 / Junior Record / Personal Best)
7th Performer All-Time
Gregor Deveau ‘21
54.78
23rd Place / Personal Best)
(Prelim: 55.27 / Personal Best)
200 Freestyle Relay
Max Hunger ‘20 (20.67 / School Record / All-American / Personal Best)
Brandon Garcia ’20 (20.72) (6th Performer All-Time
Marcus Lee ’21 (20.64) (5th Performer All-Time)
Arnold Su ’20 (20.73)
1:22.76
2nd Place / School Record / All-American / Under New England Record but Brunswick went even faster (!)
Prelim:
Arnold Su ’20 (21.33)
Brandon Garcia ’20 (21.29)
Marcus Lee ’21 (20.71)
Max Hunger ’20 (20.26) (2nd Performer All-Time)
1:23.59 / School Record / All-American
Ralph Lam ’22 (22.47 / Personal Best)
Alexander Grande ’21 (22.05)
Marcel Liu ’23 (21.96)
Christopher Xia ’23 (22.12)
1:28.60
Diving (11 Dives)
Zack Peng ’21
399.60 Points / Upper Record
4th Place
Johann Asmus Leon ‘20
204.95 / Personal Best
20th Place
Bennett Pease ‘21
177.30 / Personal Best
22nd Place
100 Freestyle
Arnold Su ‘20
45.23
4th Place / All-American / Personal Best
(Prelim: 46.09)
2nd All-Time
Marcus Lee ‘21
45.39
5th Place / All-American
(Prelim: 45.08 / School & Upper Records / All-American/ Personal Best)
Brandon Garcia ‘20
45.83
7th Place / Personal Best)
Prelim: 46.07 / Personal Best)
5th Performer All-Time
Ralph Lam ‘22
49.16
Personal Best
Alexander Grande ‘21
49.91
Personal Best
Trey Wolfe ‘23
50.02
Personal Best
500 Freestyle
Max Hunger ‘20
4:28.32
4th Place / School Record / All-American/ Personal Best
(Prelim: 4:32.32 / All-American)
Anthony Minickiello ‘20
4:36.22
9th Place / Personal Best
(Prelim: 4:40.06 / Personal Best)
4th Performer All-Time
Riku Tanaka ‘20
4:49.34
15th Place
(Prelim: 4:46.28 / Personal Best)
10th Performer All-Time
Hank Yang ‘22
4:49.87
20th Place
(Prelim: 4:48.23 / Personal Best)
14th Performer All-Time
Jay Pae ‘23
5:01.78
100 Backstroke
Sam Donchi ‘20
49.75 / All-American
4th Place
(Prelim: 49.67 / All-American / Personal Best)
2nd Performer All-Time
Marcel Liu ‘23
54.06
16th Place
(Prelim: 53.16 / Junior Record / Personal Best)
10th Performer All-Time
Gregor Deveau ‘21
55.04
24th Place
(Prelim: 54.92 / Personal Best)
24th Performer All-Time
100 Breaststroke
Yubo Jin ‘21
55.53
4th Place / School & Upper Records / All-American / Personal Best
(Prelim: 56.15 / All-American / Personal Best)
Christopher Xia ‘23
57.08
8th Place / Personal Best
(Prelim: 57.37 / Personal Best)
5th Performer All-Time
Brendon Fang ‘22
59.96
15th Place / Personal Best
(Prelim: 1:00.22)
16th Performer All-Time
Max Fang ‘22
1:00.73
22nd Place
(Prelim: 1:00.34 / Personal Best)
19th Performer All-Time
Trey Wolfe ‘23
1:01.56
Personal Best
Tied 23rd Performer All-Time
400 Freestyle Relay
Marcus Lee ’21 (45.21) All-American
Arnold Su ’20 (45.02)
Sam Donchi ’20 (45.60)
Max Hunger ’20 (43.98) (1st Performer All-Time)
2:59.81
1st Place / Eastern, New England, Pool, & School Records / All-American
Prelim:
Marcus Lee ’21 (45.34) All-American
Brandon Garcia ’20 (46.03) (11th Performer All-Time)
Arnold Su ’20 (45.00)
Sam Donchi ’20 (45.25) (6th Performer All-Time)
3:01.62
All-American
3rd Performers All-Time
Trey Wolfe ’23 (50.30)
Jay Pae ’23 (51.13)
Gregor Deveau ’21 (48.10)
Ralph Lam ’22 (48.61)
3:18.14
Team Scores
641 Andover
485.5 Mercersberg Academy
448 Haverford School
433 Episcopal Academy
427 Brunswick School
373 Germantown Academy
346.5 Malvern Prep
282 Pennington School
277 Georgetown Preparatory School
271 Exeter
244.5 Hill School
199 Peddie School
Last year, Easterns began awarding a “combined” trophy, recognizing the school with the highest total score between both its boys’ and girls’ teams. This year, the Andover Girls placed 4th and scored 418 points. When those are combined with the Boys’ score, Andover defeated Episcopal 1059 to 1052 for the combined title!