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EDWARDSVILLE – For a program just in its' second year of full existence, Edwardsville's boys swimming team has had some success.
Exhibit A: The IHSA's Boys Swimming Championship Edwardsville Sectional meet that took place Saturday at Chuck Fruit Aquatic Center. And while the Tigers fell a bit short of their goal of taking the team title – Springfield won the crown – Tiger coach Christian Rhoten certainly wasn't disappointed about how things went on the day.
Plus EHS' Brian Baggette qualified for next weekend's IHSA state meet in Evanston with a win in the 500-yard freestyle in 4:42.46 – not only winning the event, but also posting a time that would have otherwise sent him to Evanston (all first-place winners in each event advanced to the state meet plus those who posted times equal or better to IHSA-set automatic qualifying times) and also swimming a personal best in the event.
“To host the meet here is really special for our program,” Rhoten said, “and it's the first time our guys were able to host the meet here (at the two-year-old CFAC facility); we hosted girls (the girls Sectional meet) here last year, and anytime we can have this big of a meet and this big of a turnout (the stands were filled with fans and EHS students, including the Orange Rush student cheer squad), and so many fans come out and so many kids from the school came out, it's really special for everyone involved.
“Really, this is the kind of stuff this pool was built for; just have great meets, put on great productions and keep them coming, so it was great that we were able to host this meet and I think it went very, very well.”
Springfield scored 298 points to claim the team championship on the day, with the Tigers second at 183; O'Fallon finished third with 151, Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin was fourth at 105, followed by Jacksonvlle (93), Chatham Glenwood (69.5), Springfield Southeast (40 and Jacksonville Routt (9). The Senators won seven of the 12 events on the day, with Westfair Christian of Jacksonville winning two events (the 200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke) while Collinsville's Vinnie O'Connor (in the 50 freestyle) and Belleville East's Logan Theiss (in the 100 backstroke) also won their way to Evanston.
Three other area schools – Alton, McGivney Catholic and Granite City – had swimmers take part as individuals, but none qualified for the state meet.
“We had a better meet than I figured we would,” Rhoten said. “Brian had a fantastic swim in the 500; a lifetime-best time, won the event and got the state cut; there's nothing else we could have hoped for with him, but there were so many other swims in this meet for us that were so strong and so surprising.”
Other than Baggette's swim that put him in the field for Evanston, Edwardsville finished fourth in the 4x50 medley relay (Michael Johnson, Zac Ballossini, Noah May and Todd Carter); Baggette was third in the 200 free in 1:50.09; May took in the 200 IM (2:10.32); Tyler Morris was third in the 50 free (22.27, four-tenths of a second off of the state qualifying time of 21.87); May was fourth in the 100 butterfly (58.15); Morris finished fourth in the 100 free (49.60); Graham Peterson was fifth in the 500 free (5:18.43); the team of Baggette, Carter, May and Morris was second in the 4x50 free relay (1:33.88); Johnson was 11th in the 100 backstroke (1:01.72); Ballossini finished 16th in the 100 breaststroke (1:10.22); and the team of Baggette, Peterson, Johnson and Morris was second in the 4x100 free relay (3:28.29). In the diving competition that started the day, Alex Naeger (fifth with 310.85 points) and Luke Pranger (seventh with 255.55 points) took part for the Tigers.
The Warriors' top swimmers on the day included the team of Ryan Mihu, Jacob Kahn, Alec DeYoung and Jordan James (12th in the 4x50 medley relay in 2:05.55); James (22nd in the 50 free in 25.39); DeYoung (25th in the 50 free in 26.04); Kahn (28th in the 100 free in 1:06.88 and 27th in the 100 breast in 1:26.66); DeYoung, Mihu, Jacob Klee and James (12th in the 4x50 free relay in 1:52.12); and Mihu (29th in the 100 breast in 1:27.23).
Gunnar Kohlbrecher was the only swimmer on the day for the Griffins, finishing fifth in the 100 free in 49.96 and eighth in the 100 back in 59.41.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
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