RallyNorth.net

A year ago in this meet, Chelmsford High halted Andover's 10-year reign over the Merrimack Valley Conference.

Yesterday, the Warriors made the Lions pay.

In the process of knocking off Chelmsford, 105-79, in the regular season finale, Andover reclaimed its stake to conference supremacy, completing a 12-0 season.

Andover's girls swim team prepared for its inevitable winner-take-all season-ending clash with Chelmsford by comfortably defeating a tough Lexington squad yesterday, 98-72. Senior diver Gabrielle Galat provided some clutch points for the unbeated Golden Warriors by winning diving with a score of 184 points. The battle for the MVC crown will be fought Thursday at 3:30 p.m. at the Gr. Lawrence Tech pool.

Andover was able to extract revenge from Acton-Boxboro, the team that snapped a 99-game winning streak and eliminated and beat the Warriors at states last season. 

"This was probably the biggest meet in the past three or so years for Andover swimming," said head coach Marilyn Fitzgerald. "Some of the fastest times in the state were in that pool."

Central Catholic's Hannah Mitchell won two events but it was all over Andover after that. Deborah Daly (220.60) and Jenny Coneeny (213.55) went 1-2 for the unbeaten Golden Warriors, who rolled to the easy win.

Andover used 11 different swimmers in three winning relays in a 96-80 win over Billerica, keeping the Golden Warriors undefeated at 7-0. There were no individual double winners as head coach Marilyn Fitzgerald took it easy on the Indians.

Sam Hall won the 500 freestyle and team with Jess Mancini, Kate Sullivan and Emma Cammann to win the 200 medley relay as Andover bested Belmont 85-77.

Andover swept all events in a 108-70 win over Haverhill and went 1-2 in nine of the 12 events. Maggie D'Innocenzo and Monica Patterson each won two events and each were part of two winning relay teams.

Andover's swimming team is apparently reloading in a big way.

The Warriors won all but one event in a 95-67 rout of Melrose and two of the standouts, Maggie D'Innoncenzo and Ashley Korsberg looked strong while winning events.