Abington Friends School

About the Program: Swimming has a long history at Abington Friends School dating back to the early 1900’s when it was a regular part of the School’s physical education program. In the mid-20th century AFS competed interscholastically in swimming and saw Susan Doerr ’64 medal in the 1960 Olympics in Rome. After a 40-year hiatus, AFS Varsity Girls Swimming restarted in 2007, and the program has recorded steady improvement in both numbers of participants and performance in the pool year over year since then. Varsity Swimming trains at the nearby Abington Club pool with morning and afternoon sessions between November and the end of February during the competitive season. AFS Varsity Girls Swimming is open to all interested students in 8th through 12th grade with coaches placing particular emphasis on fostering an environment geared towards individual improvement for all participants.

AFS Varsity Girls Swimming Most Recent Season (2022-23):

• Finished season with 3 dual meet wins, most since 2017-18.
• Set school records in 200 Free Relay and 400 Free Relay.
• Roster of 14 marked program high in last decade.
• Placed 5th at Friends Schools League Championship Meet.
• Riley Blore ’23 earned All-Friends Schools League honors for 2nd consecutive year.
• Maddy Singer ’23 capped 5-year Varsity career as co-captain & member of 2 school record relay squads.
• Double digit expected returnees including 3 members of school record relay squads.

AFS Varsity Girls Swimming Program Highlights:

• AFS sponsored Girls Swimming teams in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Program resumed in Friends Schools League in 2007-08.
• AFS student Susan Doerr ’64 swam in 1960 Olympics in Rome & earned a gold medal in 4×100 Freestyle Relay.
• Twenty-five top-6 finishers at FSL Swim Champs for AFS Girls Swimming since 2007, including 8 by Michelle Lebed ’19, 5 by Meghan Daly ’10, 4 by Riley Blore ’23 and 3 by Alex Zega ’11.
• Defeated Shipley 66-63 in Jan. 2008 for 1st FSL win in program history.
• 2017-18 team set program records for FSL Championship placement (4th) & points (25) & Easterns Swim Championship placement (24th) & points (27).