2023 Eastern Interscholastic Swimming & Diving Championships
- February 17-18, 2023
- Lancaster, PA
- SCY (25 yards)
- Meet Central
- Results (PDF)
- Team Scores
It was a dominant title defense for the Germantown Academy girls at the Eastern Interscholastic Championships at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., on Feb. 18, while the Andover boys won a razor-thin battle over defending champion Mercersburg Academy.
GIRLS’ RECAP
Germantown Academy had junior Taylor Grimley sweep her individual events and the team won two relays as they rolled to a dominant repeat victory, as they were the only squad to exceed 500 points with a whopping 658.
Grimley won Swimmer of the Meet honors on the girls’ side with wins in the 100 fly (52.98) and 100 back (53.69), setting a new meet record in the former.
A Kentucky commit, Grimley reset her personal best time in both races, with her performance in the 100 fly obliterating the Easterns meet record of 54.17 held jointly by Val Yoshimura (2013) and Sydney Kang (2022).
Also winning two individual events was Notre Dame sophomore Tori Abruzzo, who set new personal bests in claiming the 200 IM (2:00.87) and 500 free (4:53.11).
Following Grimley in terms of points for Germantown was sophomore Emily Hamill, who won the 200 free in a best time of 1:47.91 and added a runner-up finish in the 100 free, where Harvard-Westlake’s Lily Neumann came out on top, 50.01 to 50.41.
Germantown also swept the freestyle relays, setting a new meet record in the 200 free and a Franklin & Marshall pool record in the 400 free.
Grimley (22.84), Sarah Freeman (23.61), Karly Boles (23.43) and Hamill (22.78) combined to clock 1:32.66 in the 200 free relay, breaking the meet record of 1:33.35 set by Germantown in 2013.
Grimley’s lead-off time was also a new meet record, lowering the 22.87 mark established by Greenwich’s Kate Hazlett in 2019.
In the 400 free relay, Hamill (50.13), Freeman (51.05), Grimley (49.96) and Boles (51.00) demolished the field in a time of 3:22.14, coming just over half a second shy of the 10-year-old meet record while resetting the pool record.
Germantown also had victories come from senior Eliza Meth in the 100 breast (1:03.63) and sophomore Libby Brewer in the 1-meter diving event (438.15).
Phillips Exeter Academy had two wins on the day, starting with the 200 medley relay, where Mena Boardman, Audrey Zhang, Brianna Cong and Sophie Phelps picked up the victory in 1:43.66, just shy of the 1:43.24 meet record set by Germantown last year.
Boardman, a freshman, followed up by winning the 50 free in a time of 23.22, having neared the meet record previously held by Hazlett with her prelim swim of 22.94.
Team Scores – Top 5
- Germantown Academy, 658
- Mercersburg Academy, 494
- William Penn Charter School, 465
- Andover, 416
- Phillips Exeter Academy, 398
BOYS’ RECAP
After placing third in 2022, the Andover boys returned to the top of the heap this year with their third Eastern championship title since 2019, scoring 673 points to dethrone defending champion Mercersburg (652) by just 21.5 points. Both teams notably put up more points than Mercersburg did en route to the win last year (621).
93% personal best performances at Easterns fueled Andover’s 3rd championship since 2019 (673 points). Mercersberg (652.5). Germantown (442). Haverford (394.5). Brunswick (383). Exeter (379). pic.twitter.com/hG0tjVm7uA
— AndoverBoysSwim&Dive (@AndoverBSwimDiv) February 22, 2023
Andover won the title despite just two first-place finishes in the pool, as they were buoyed by 13 athletes scoring 20 or more points.
The team kicked things off by winning the 200 medley relay, as Oliver Feng (24.17), Christopher Xia (25.28), Marcel Liu (20.84) and Theo Randall (20.12) combined for a time of 1:30.41, topping runner-up Mercersburg (1:31.22) which had a blistering 24.65 breast split from Juan Mora.
Liu was the lone individual event winner for Andover, claiming the 100 fly in a personal best time of 48.09.
The top individual performers were Germantown junior Landon D’Ariano and Mercersburg senior Deniel Nankov, both winning two events while Nenkov added a meet record.
D’Ariano, who is committed to Texas in the fall of 2024, won the 200 IM in a personal best time of 1:47.13, improving on his third-place finish from last year, and he followed up by earning a repeat title in the 500 free (4:25.46).
Nankov, a Yale commit, set a new meet record of 43.31 in the 100 free, having first broken the previous mark of 43.77 set by David Curtiss in 2020 in the prelims at 43.70.
A Bulgarian native, Nankov came into the meet with a best time of 44.50 set in November.
Nankov also picked up a win in the 50 free, clocking 20.20 to near his PB of 20.08.
Mercersburg had another individual win come from Mora, a Navy commit, who won the 100 breast in a time of 53.91, getting well under his best time entering the meet of 54.56.
In the 200 free relay, Nankov (20.39), Mora (20.45), Jake Thompson (21.02) and Mason Green (20.36) combined for a time of 1:22.22 to give Mercersburg the win by nearly a second and a half.
Other Winners
- Germantown senior Jay Freeman won the 200 free in 1:38.03, resetting his best time.
- In the 400 free relay, Freeman split 45.75 and D’Ariano anchored in 44.93 as Germantown won the race in 3:01.32, with Mercersburg getting a blistering 42.98 anchor from Nankov to place second (3:01.94).
- Phillips Exter sophomore Ethan Guo dropped half a second en route to winning the 100 back in 49.75, edging out The Haverford School’s Max Marr (49.95).
- Haverford’s AJ Rosenberger won the 1-meter diving event with a score of 486.90.
Team Scores – Top 5
- Andover, 673
- Mercersburg Academy, 652.5
- Germantown Academy, 442
- The Haverford School, 394.5
- Brunswick, 383
I will never forget watching Heat 1 of the Boys 400 free relay. Watching GA, Peddie, and Malvern duke it out was special. After seeing GA’s seed time of 4:00, I thought I was in to watch them get completely blown out of the water. I could not have been more wrong. After Calabro’s leg, watching Grimley dive in the water, the exchange was one of the best I’ve seen so I knew GA was going to pull ahead. However, the combination of Shapiro and Thompson’s leg was more than enough to assist GA in dropping 41 seconds from their seed time. These boys set a new meet record for most time ever dropped in an event. This extraordinary relay… Read more »
Brandon is this you
Nankov’s 50 free gave me flashbacks to that cold February 1998 Fort Washington evening when Hartzel had that crazy 19.07 split. Of course that was off a running dive, but still impressive!
W andover
50 Free Bro
Great job Germantown Academy! Glad to see that the team is well recovered after the 2012 peanut incident. In case you didn’t know, Herbert the Elephant escaped the Philadelphia Zoo, and a boy by the name of Arthur Frayler had to lure him out with nothing but a bag of peanuts! Sadly, Herbert the Elephant passed away 2 years ago. May he rest in peace.
Congratulations to Germantown Academy! Especially with the school record in the 400 free by Fleck, Freeman, Zhou, and D’ariano. D’Ariano’s 38.7 final leg is arguably the greatest event in Germantown Academy’s legendary history, only behind 500 nat’l prep record holder Arthur Frayler’s heroic in the 2012 peanut incident
It was amazing to see D’ariano hold off Nankov in that last 400 freestyle relay. The scoreboard must have broken because I could’ve swore Nankov was almost 4 seconds ahead of D’Ariano going into the last 50 when D’ariano split his legendary 17.68 (from a turn). He tracked down Nankov just out-touched him at the last wall. Truly an amazing swim. Texas got a good one
Wow! This will definitely go down as one of the most memorable Easterns of all time! Matched only by 2012 peanut incident where aurthur frayler led an elephant that escaped from the zoo out of the pool deck using a bag of peanuts!