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EDWARDSVILLE – Thursday night's Southwestern Illinois Swimming Association dual meet between Granite City's Paddlers and Edwardsville's Waterworks clubs was a pretty emotional night in one way:
Marlins coach Elizabeth McPherson was taking part in her final meet as an active swimmer with the team she's spend the past 10 years swimming for in the SWISA competition.
“I didn't think about it before (her last individual event, the 15-18 50 butterfly, was announced), which I didn't know they were going to do,” McPherson said. “I almost cried, I'm not going to lie – it was close.”
McPherson went on to take a big win in the event, covering the distance in 32.48 seconds, winning over the Pirates' Kori Nesbit, who had a time of 36.81 seconds and Myah Chenault of Paddlers, who turned in a 45.01-second performance, as the Marlin girls defeated the Pirates 204-156; a 202-141 Pirate boys win, however, was enough to give Paddlers the overall win on the night, scoring a 358-345 win at Waterworks Thursday night.
McPherson, who swam her final year while taking over head coaching duties for Waterworks, recently graduated from Edwardsville High School and will continue her swimming career in the fall when she goes to Illinois State University in Normal, where she won a scholarship to swim for the Redbirds. “It's crazy to think that I've been swimming for 10 years and I get to carry it on with a scholarship and everything for the next four years,” McPherson said. “I'm just so grateful for it because, when you think about it, not many people get to do it and I get to, because (Illinois State) is such a great school.
“If you had asked me two years ago if I was going to swim in college, I definitely would have said 'no'; it's awesome to get the opportunity to do so.”
The Marlins set several team and venue records on the night; Cooper Scharf set an age-group (11-12) record in the 50 backstroke, covering the distance in 34.22 seconds, while Cohen Osborn set a 10-11 mark for the Marlins and the pool with a 1:08.72 effort in the 100 freestyle and added marks of 31.82 seconds in the 50 freestyle and 37.14 seconds in the 50 backstroke.
“I think we performed really well,” McPherson said. “Everyone tried their best; it was a long night, as it usually is, but everyone pushed hard, no matter what; they were tired and they still tried hard. A fol of them pushed through at the end of their races, so it was really awesome to see them do it.”
McPherson had two other individual wins on the night in the 100 individual medley and the 100 breaststroke as well as being on the winning teams in the 4x50 medley relay and 4x50 freestyle relay; Osborn himself had four individual wins on the night for the Marlins, while Scharff had three, Grace Sponeman three, Savannah Grinter two, Nathan Zickuhr two, Allison Naylor two, Autumn Grinter three, Logan Mills three, Phoebe Gremaud two and Olivia Ramierez two for Waterworks.
Multiple winners for Paddlers included Emily Webb (two), Alec DeYoung (three), Jordan James (three), Emmett Prichett (three), Riley Curry (three), Evan Brewer (two), Wyatt Loftus (two) and Alexander Weaver (two). Waterworks won 11 of the evening's relay events.
The Marlins finish up the SWISA season by taking on crosstown rival Sunset Hills at 6 p.m. Tuesday, while Paddlers travels to Godfrey for a 6 p.m. Tuesday meet against SummersPort; SummersPort hosts the SWISA Championship meet July 17.
This season has been “more stressful than last summer, just because I went from having very little responsibility to a lot” in running the team, McPherson said. “I like having more responsibility; the beginning was kind of rocky, but towards the middle and the end, I think I figured out what works best for each swimmer and I know what they like to do in practice and what they don't like to do, so I tried to incorporate that.
“I know I always wanted to be a captain of some sort (on a swim team), so I hope by my senior year, having this under my belt and having hopefully more years of coaching, I can become a better leader.”
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