SPRINGFIELD – The Edwardsville High School girls swimming team won its fifth straight IHSA sectional meet on Saturday, easily outdistancing host Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin 312-197 at Eisenhower Pool. O’Fallon finished third with 162 points, Chatham Glenwood ended up fourth with 81, and Springfield High rounded out the top five with 32.
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In addition, Jacksonville was sixth with 14 points, Petersburg PORTA had 12, Springfield Southeast had nine points, and Jacksonville Routt Catholic had four.
The Tigers qualified six individuals and two relay teams for the state meet next Friday at Evanston High School in suburban Chicago.
“We had some really good swimmers come through here today,” Tigers head coach Christian Rhoten said, “and the good thing is we still have a really young team this year. The girls put in a lot of work this year, and they have really been putting their heads down since the summer. It was the first time ever to swim somewhat tapered in almost 24 weeks now, and it was refreshing. We’ve swam pretty fast in the season, but not as fast as we did today.”
Junior Josie Bushell helped lead the way for the Tigers by qualifying for four events. Bushell won the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 52.66 seconds and the 200-yard freestyle in 1:55.14. She was a part of two relay teams, along with Phoebe Gremaud. Allison Naylor and Autumn Grinter, to qualify for state, taking the 200-yard freestyle relay in 1:38.38 and the 400-yard freestyle relay in 3:39.52.
“Josie is a junior, and she’s taken over a leadership role on the team,” Rhoten said. “She’s really been a good addition to the team, and is a quiet leader in all four of her events.”
Gremaud also qualified in the 200-yard individual medley, finishing second with a time of 2:06.52, and the 100-yard backstroke, again finishing second at 58.21 seconds.
“Phoebe’s really a swimmer at heart,” Rhoten said. “She did really good in the 200 IM today, and in the 100 backstroke in the 58’s, she’s been striving to get to it for a while now.”
Naylor qualified for the state meet by winning the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 24.82 seconds, while Savannah Grinter qualified for the 500-yard freestyle with a winning time of 5:18.77.
Edwardsville failed to qualify any of the divers for the state meet, but Rhoten praised their efforts.
“Our divers put in a lot of work this past week, along with throwing in some dives we just learned recently, and we put them in all this week,” Rhoten said. “Gail Lindsey, our diving coach, does so good with them, she has such expertise and is a definite helper.”
And Rhoten really loves to see his swimmers do well and achieve their goals that they’ve worked very hard for.
“For me, I love seeing athletes, and seeing them perform well,” Rhoten said. “One of the most awesome parts about it is seeing a big smile on their faces that they worked hard and achieve a goal they’ve set for themselves. It’s something awesome to work with teenagers and guide them to work towards their goals.”
And the Tigers also really came together as a team during the season as well.
“We definitely had some better team cohesion than in the past,” Rhoten said. “Atmosphere and togetherness you can’t force. It has to be built, and that is something that we’ve been working on as a team this year, working hard together. The girls spent a lot of time together at practice and at school, and they definitely see each other enough. We really had a great team atmosphere, and thankfully, a lot of them will be back next year. We’re not graduating a lot of seniors, and we have 10 or 15 in the sophomore class, and that’s really huge. They’re very strong swimmers.”
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