Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
EDWARDSVILLE – The girls’ swimming and diving team at Edwardsville High performed very well, winning 11 of the 12 events at the Southern Illinois High School Championships Thursday evening at the Chuck Fruit Aquatic Center.
Junior Josie Bushell won two events, the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard backstroke, while the relay teams swept their three events.
It was the Tigers’ final meet of the regular season, and there were some very good performances by the entire team.
“This was kind of our last meet before the sectional,” said Edwardsville coach Christian Rhoten, “so this was our last in-season meet, as we call it, and we got some really good performances, kind of across the board, and it’s really hard to swim in-season. So the girls are still very tired, and as you can see, they’re working out right now after the meet. So, they’re looking forward to some rest next week, and we’ll be looking forward to swimming fast on (Nov. 10, the date of the sectional meet).
Two of Edwardsville’s top swimmers, Bushell and senior Morgan Rockwell, had some very good performances.
“Well, Josie had a nice freestyle; 24.7 is a really good 50 freestyle flat start right now,” Rhoten said. “And then, Josie’s 100-yard backstroke, 1:04.71’s good for Josie. She’s not really a backstroker, so she’s just wanting to do something she doesn’t really do all the time. Morgan had a really good 100 butterfly; she’s come a long way, 1:04.61 is a really good time for her. And she was also on our 200 medley B, had a good split there.”
There were other swimmers that stood out for the Tigers in the meet as well.
“Phoebe Gremaud’s 100 butterfly, 1:01 was a really good time. Maggie Grieve, one of her best times in the 500, 5:31. So just of randomly across the board, we had some pretty good swims; the breaststrokers, all the top three, four actually had some really good races. So it was kind of hit and miss, depending on how rested everyone feels today. But we’ll have our sectional lineup ready to go tomorrow, and that’s where our focus is right now.”
Edwardsville teams finished one-two in the meet’s opening event, the 200-yard medley relay, with the A team of Autumn Grinter, Olivia Ramirez, Allison Naylor and Ally Jackson winning with a time of 1:59.57, with the B team of Grieve, Sarah Lange, Rockwell and Lydia Hemings coming in at 2:03.58. Triad’s team of Amanda Beuth, Rose Ross, Rylee Sitton and Maddy Schmidt, came in third at 2:10.16.
It was Sitton who won the only event the Tigers didn’t win, taking the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:16.48, with Edwardsville’s Isabella Doyle coming in second at 2:21.84. Lange took top honors in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:22.11, Schmidt the runner-up at 2:27.14, and the Tigers’ Sierra Brannan third at 2:31.04. Edwardsville also swept the top three places in the 50-yard freestyle, Bushell the winner at 24.76 seconds, Naylor second at 25.43 seconds, and Grinter third at 25.68.
In the only diving competition of the meet, Hemings took the one-meter springboard with 175.28 points, finishing ahead of teammate Taylor Jennings, who had 135.26. Gremaud led another Tiger sweep of an event, taking the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:01.38, with Rockwell second at 1:04.61 and Hemings third at 1:06.04. In the 100-yard freestyle, Naylor and Janson finished in the top two with times of 57.01 seconds and 57.54 seconds respectively. Schmidt came in third with a time of 57.85 seconds.
Grieve won the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:31.33, finishing ahead of Beuth, who’s time was 5:46.14. Edwardsville’s Riley Reed was third at 6:11.63. In the 200-yard freestyle relay, Tiger teams again swept, with the A team of Grinter, Naylor, Gremaud and Bushell winning with a time of 1:41.58, the B team of Hemings, Lange, Jordan Schlueter and Ramirez the runners-up at 1:55.55, and the C team of Rockwell, Brannan, Reed and Isabella Grinter third at 1:57.12.
Bushell won the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:04.71, with Autumn Grinter taking second at 1:05.58 and Beuth third at 1:05.79. Ramirez led a Tiger sweep of the 100-yard breaststroke, winning the event with a time of 1:13.34. Second place went to Lange at 1:15.27, and Grieve was third at 1:15.81. In the meet’s final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay, Edwardsville’s team of Autumn Grinter, Janson, Gremaud and Bushell won with a time of 3:50.07, with Triad’s team of Beuth, Ross, Sitton and Schmidt coming in second at 4:16.52.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
More like this:
