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EDWARDSDVILLE - The Edwardsville High boys swimming team made a triumphant return to the Chuck Fruit Aquatic Center by winning six events, with Cohen Osborn and Eddie Myers winning twice, as the Tigers won their fifth annual Swim For HOPE meet Saturday at the CFAC.
The Tigers won the meet with 366 points, with Chatham Glenwood finishing second with 314 points, in third place was O'Fallon with 305 points, Springfield High came in fourth at 295 points and Springfield Southeast finished fifth with 10 points.
It was the first meet hosted at the Chuck Fruit Center since repairs were completed to the HVAC unit, which forced the center to close for approximately three months. The opening is very timely as well, as Edwardsville is scheduled to host an IHSA sectional meet on Feb. 18, with the state meet set for suburban Chicago on Feb. 24-25.
Hunter Schlueter got the Tigers on the board first with a third place finish in the one-meter springboard diving competition, scoring 323.65 points. The team then won its first race in the 100-yard medley relay, with the team of Eddie Myers, Osborn, Owen Gruben and Austin Norcio winning with a time of 46.25 seconds and the team of Alex Ge, Daniel Sanchez, Andre Myers and Andrew Knef finishing fifth at 54.38 seconds. Gruben then came in second in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 23.37 seconds, while Eddie Myers won his first event in the 100-yard backstroke at 56.47 seconds, with Norcio placing third at 1:02.51.
Ryan Schlechte was fifth in the 50-yard breaststroke at 36.87 seconds, with teammate Gabe Frazier right behind in sixth at 38.51 seconds. Osborn won his first event in the 100-yard butterfly, coming in at 52.91 seconds, with Ridge Batchelor finishing fifth at 1:10.32, then Bryce Seymour came in seventh in the 50-yard backstroke at 34.20 seconds, with Frazier coming in ninth at 35.22 seconds. Gruben finished in fourth in the 100-yard breaststroke at 1:16.93, with Ge placing in fifth with a time of 1:17.20, while in the 200-yard freestyle, the team of Ge, Knef, Sanches and Andre Myers came in third with a time of 1:42.24, while the team of Danford Mason, Batchelor, Dane Fallis and Logan Heepke finished fifth at 1:49.51.
Osborn took his second race of the day with a win in the 100-yard freestyle at 49.13 seconds, with Andre Myers coming in fourth at 53.82 seconds. Seymour came in seventh in the 50-yard butterfly with a time of 34.47 seconds, while Schlechte was right behind in eighth at 34.50 seconds. Eddie Myers then won his second event by taking the 100-yard individual medley at 57.58 seconds, while Norcio was fifth at 1:00.83. In the final event, the 100-yard freestyle relay, Edwardsville's team of Eddie Myers, Gruben, Norcio and Osborn won the race at 40.97 seconds, with the team of Batchelor, Fallis, Mason and Heepke placing sixth with a time of 48.20 seconds.
Edwardsville head boys swim coach Christian Rhoten said it felt good to be back in the Aquatic Center on Saturday hosting the annual invitational meet.
"We were able to mix things up and do some fun shorter events including 50s of the strokes, the 100 IM, and 100-yard relays," he said. "Even though there are only four weeks until sectionals left, we have a meet every week so we will be very busy hosting meets and training hard over the next month."
Edwardsville's boys' swimmers will have a dual meet on Thursday against O'Fallon Township High School with a 5:30 p.m. start.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
