Swimming & Diving v. Exeter

Varsity swimming and diving hosted the Phillips Exeter Academy JV swimming and diving team on the beautiful, snowy Winter Carnival weekend. The meet looked to be a tight battle when comparing the times of swimmers from both squads. Expectations were high for the Eaglebrook squad, this was THE meet of the year. The stands were filled with parents and relatives of both teams. The Eaglebrook boys swam to a quick lead by winning the 200 Medley Relay, led by Jeff Lim ‘18, Leon Leung ‘16, Andrew Brooks ‘16 and Kevin Li ‘16, then proceeded to get swept in the 200 freestyle. The teams were tied at this point in the meet. The Brookies swam to the lead, led by Brooks in the 200 IM and Lim in the 50 Freestyle, followed by exceptional performances by Thomas Eglin and Anthony Lo, in the diving competition. Despite winning 4 out of five events. Exeter’s second, third, and fourth place finishes kept the meet close, tied. Following intermission, Eaglebrook was swept in the 100 freestyle despite a fantastic season’s best time by Jack Sun, making it into the 00 club, by swimming a 59 second 100 Freestyle. The Brookies had fallen behind at this point, going into the 500 Freestyle. Just when he needed to make his best swim, Laith Hijazi ‘16 swam a personal best 5:44 to take first and Matt Kenvin ’17 swam the 500 for the first time this season to place third. Now, The Eaglebrook team faced a fast Exeter 200 freestyle team. Apparently, the Exeter team won the race, but the officials noticed a false start by one of the Exeter swimmers and the race went to the Brookies. So, with the 100 Backstroke, 100 Breaststroke and 400 Freestyle relay remaining, Eaglebrook had a slight lead. Kevin Li ’16 and Jeff Lim ’18 swept the backstroke and in the 100 breast stroke Leon Leung’16 was disqualified for a false start, leaving the door open to the Exeter Big Red. Eaglebrook had a 6-point lead going into the final event. So, It all came down to the final race, as it should, the 400 Freestyle Relay. Exeter had to place first and second to win the meet. The quartet of Brooks, Stephen Gu ‘17, Hijazi and Zach Lee ’16 swam their best relay of the season, crushing the hopes and dreams of the Exeter team. The team swims and dives at Deerfield on Wednesday and treks to Exeter,NH next Saturday for a return, “duel in the pool”, against the Big Red of Phillips Exeter Academy.