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EDWARDSVILLE – Edwardsville's girls swimming team is coming together very nicely, feels Tiger coach Christian Rhoten.
“They're coming together nicely as a team,” Rhoten said following the Tigers' 121-65 win over Chatham Glenwood in a dual meet at Chuck Fruit Aquatic Center Thursday evening. “At the beginning of the year, we kind of didn't know where everyone would fit best in a team lineup, but as we get more meets under out belts, we're able to have the girls do different events and then we're able to see what they can do in the different events. That makes it a little bit better fit for the team, especially with some of the new girls with whom I'm not familiar with what their best times are.
“We're trying to get them do all the events throughout the season in dual meets; we'll see how close we are to that.”
Rhoten felt the Tigers swam well despite some fatigue. “They looked good,” Rhoten said. “They looked like they were swimming pretty tired, but that's to be expected; by virtue of having most of our meets on Thursday evenings, we lift weights on Tuesday and Thursday mornings; they already practiced once today, so they're probably feeling pretty tired, but despite that, we had some nice races out of the night.”
Edwardsville won 10 of the evening's 12 events, with Bailey Grinter taking individual wins in the 200 freestyle and 100 backstroke and being a part of the winning 4x50 medley relay (along with Hannah Benson, Sierra Brannan and Josie Bushell) and 4x100 freestyle relay teams (along with Emily Webb, Bushell and Victoria Brady); Bushell also took wins in the 200 individual medley and 100 freestyle.
“I think it went well, seeing as though we're in the middle of the season,” said the Tigers' Madi Young. “I was happy with my times; there's always work to be done. You have to keep trying to strive to be faster and work harder.
“We've been bonding a lot more and doing a lot more as a team; I think the morale of the team is higher and there's a lot more positivity. We're working more as a team, which is always good.”
Other Tiger wins came in the 50 freestyle (Emily Webb), diving (Taylor Seilheimer) and 4x50 freestyle relay (Hannah Benson, Hope Roderick, Webb and Brady).
The Tigers return to the pool Oct. 15 for the fund-raising Paint the Pool Pink Invitational for cancer awareness and research. Diving competition begins at 10:30 a.m. and swimming competition commences at 1:30 p.m.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
