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GRANITE CITY – The past quarter-century has been good to the Sharks of Summersport Swim Club of Godfrey.
They've dominated the Southwestern Illinois Swimming Association since winning the league championship in 1993.
The Sharks won their 25th straight SWISA championship Sunday afternoon at Granite City's Paddlers Swim Club in the annual season-ending league championship meet, scoring 1,967.5 points to hold off a spirited challenge from Edwardsville's Water Works club, the Marlins finishing second at 1,819 points. The host Pirates took third at 1.791, with Splash City of Collinsville finishing fourth at 1,595.5 and Sunset Hills' Stingrays of Edwardsville taking fifth at 611.
The Marlin girls, however, scored a win over the Shark girls, Water Works scoring 1,144 points to take the girls’ competition; the Sharks had 923.5 points, followed by the Pirates at 805, the Gators at 755.5 and the Stingrays at 331; Summersport took the boys meet with 1,044 points, followed by the Pirates at 986, the Gators at 840, the Marlins at 675 and the Stingrays at 280.
“It's been a very successful day,” said Sharks coach Nancy Miller. “I had many swimmers post their best times by a lot and I had swimmers achieve things they never had before, like placing in the top 16 – a very good day all the way around. We had four meet records today – Anna Mohen in the 13-14 girls 100 (individual medley), Noah Clancy in the 13-14 boys 100 IM, the 100 breaststroke and Matthew Daniel in the 15-18 100 (butterfly), so I'm very pleased – they were the only meet records broken at this meet.
“I want to also congratulate the other coaches because everyone had a great meet – everyone did really well today.”
“I think they all raced really well and it was a better meet than we've had all summer,” said Marlin coach Elizabeth McPherson. “We had a lot of swimmers get first or second in their races – there were a lot of kids who won two (races) and got a second.”
Seeing her swimmers grow and develop was something that made McPherson happy.
“You get to see them grow and you're like you helped them with that,” McPherson said. “I think that's very cool – I've never experienced that before when I wasn't a coach because you're helping yourself, but once you're a coach, you're helping your teammates – it's cool that I get to do swimming and coaching.”
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The Marlins' 9-10 relay teams stood out to McPherson. “Our 9-10 girls relays are good,” McPherson said. “They're fast – our 15-18 boys relays gave it their best shot, they swam as fast as they could.”
“We did fine,” said Sunset Hills coach Dan O'Keefe. “We had a number of best times; it's nice to get your best times at the big meet. We had a number of kids who raced very hard and that's the thing we were looking for. We're happy with the best times and the racing from a handful of our guys. We did about as well as we were expecting.
“We had a few we were hoping to make a little bit better, but all in all, we're pretty happy about that.”
Looking at the full body of work for the Stingrays this season, O'Keefe was happy with how the season went. “Overall, I'm pretty happy,” O'Keefe said. “Like I said, the final meet of the season – the championships – we had a lot of good races, a lot of guys race hard at the end and that's something we're always looking for. We got best times at the championships and that's a real good way to end the season – we're pleased with that.”
Triple winners on the day included Jake Roth (Summersport), Moehn (Summersport), Stephen Stobbs (Summersport), Kylee Strong-Chasteen (Splash City), Bailey Grinter (Water Works in her final meet as a Marlin), Hudson Clemmer (Splash City), Riley Curry (Paddlers) and Noah Clancy (Summersport). Double winners on the day were Matthew Daniel (Summersport), Alivia Upshaw (Paddlers), Ava Whitaker (Water Works), Dawson James (Paddlers), Karis Chen (Water Works), Cohen Osborn (Water Works), McPherson and Wyatt Loftus (Paddlers).
Boys leading scorers on the day were Clemmer (48 points in 8-under), Stobbs (48 points in 9-10), Osborn and Loftus (45 points each in 11-12), Roth (48 points in 13-14) and Daniel and Clancy (48 points each in 15-18); girls leading scorers on the day were Curry (48 points in 8-under), Strong-Chasteen (48 points in 9-10), Whitaker (45 points in 11-12), Moehn (48 points in 13-14) and Bailey Grinter (48 points in 15-18).
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
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