EDWARDSVILLE - Edwardsville's Andre Myers, who will be swimming for Eastern Illinois University in college, won two events to qualify for the state meet, while O'Fallon will be sending two of their relay teams to the meet, and O'Fallon First Baptist Academy will be sending Bryce Light to the state meet in two events, as the Panthers won their first-ever IHSA boys swimming sectional meet Saturday afternoon at the Chuck Fruit Aquatic Center in Edwardsville.
O'Fallon won the meet with 243 points, edging out the second-place Tigers, who had 226 points, with Chatham Glenwood placing third with 157 points. Springfield finished fourth with 142 points, Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin Catholic finished in fifth with 41 points, in sixth place was Jacksonville with 23 points, and Springfield Southeast was seventh with nine points.
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The winners of each event, along with swimmers who met or beat the state qualifying time, advanced to the state meet next weekend in suburban Chicago.
The Tigers will be sending Mason Voss to state in the 100-yard breaststroke, winning the race at 59.60 seconds, Myers in the 100-yard backstroke in a state-qualifying time of 52.00 seconds, Jackson Suhre in the 500-yard freestyle in a state-qualifying time of 4:44.90, Myers also qualified for state by winning the 100-yard butterfly at 52.35 seconds, Derek Ruhel in the one-meter springboard diving event, winning with 482.25 points, Voss made it to state again by winning the 200-yard individual medley at 1:57.52, Suhre finished second in the 200-yard freestyle in a state-qualifying time of 1:43.77, and the 200-yard medley relay team of Myers, Voss, Bryce Seymour, and Daniel Wang, who won the race at 1:37.98.
Wang finished seventh in the 200-yard individual medley at 2:10.35, Nolan Csaszar was ninth in the 100-yard freestyle at 52.87, Eli Myers was 10th in the 500-yard freestyle at 5:39.39, the 200-yard freestyle relay team of Andre Myers, Suhre, Wang, and Voss finished second at 1:27.88, the 400-yard freestyle relay team of Csaszar, Drake Schultz, Jace Snyder, and Suhre finished second at 3:29,45. and Zach Majors was fourth in diving with 320.35 points, all failing to qualify for state.
O'Fallon will be sending their 400-yard freestyle relay team of Victor Stafford, Sam Carroll, Justin King, and Oliver Williams after the team won the race at 3:15.20, and the 200-yard freestyle relay team of Carroll, Dayne Crisio, King, and Williams, who won with a time of 1:27.36, beating the state qualifying time. Williams qualified for the 100-yard freestyle with a second-place qualifying time of 47.15 seconds, and for the 200-yard freestyle, winning the race at 1:42.21.
The 200-yard medley relay team of Crisio, Will Peterson, Zach Rosborg, and Trey Filyaw finished fourth at 1:44.03, while Stafford placed eighth in the 200-yard freestyle at 1:54.74, King placed second in the 200-yard individual medley at 2:02.52, teammate Nolan Blankenship was fifth in the race at 2:09.76, Crisio was second in the 50-yard freestyle at 22.25 seconds, with Carroll right behind in third at 22.26 seconds, Ethan Seedall was third in the one-meter springboard diving competition with 333.60 points, and Carroll finished fourth in the 100-yard butterfly at 55.53 seconds.
Also, Crisio was sixth in the 100-yard freestyle at 50.57 seconds, King was third in the 500-yard freestyle at 4:55.11, while Stafford was seventh at 5:17.25, Blankenship was fifth in the 100-yard backstroke at 57.73 seconds, Filyaw placed seventh at 58.96 seconds, and Peterson came in seventh in the 100-yard breaststroke at 1:04.47. All missed out on qualifying in the events.
First Baptist will have Light representing the school at state, winning the 100-yard freestyle in a state-qualifying time of 47.06 seconds, and also in the 50-yard freestyle, winning with a state-qualifying time of 21.43 seconds.
Other local results saw Triad's 200-yard medley relay team of Tyler Brokering, Jack Phelps, Kane Stopka, and Quinn Stopka finish eighth at 2:05.61, Hogan Story of Columbia was sixth in the 200-yard individual medley at 2:10.01, Nick Hasamear of Collinsville finished eighth in the race at 2:12.37, Story tied for fifth with Chapman Springvloed of Marion in the 50-yard freestyle at 23.01 seconds, Erick Humphrey of Alton finished eighth at 23.21 seconds, Luke Berger of Collinsville placed third in the 100-yard freestyle at 48.93 seconds, with Columbia's Colton Aguiar placing fourth at 49.15 seconds, Bram Malsbury of Collinsville was 10th at 52.90 seconds.
In other results, the 200-yard freestyle relay team of Collinsville's Berger, Will Swip, Malsbury, and Hasamear were fifth at 1:39.61, while Triad's team of Kane Stopka, Quinn Stopka, Brokering, and Phelps finished ninth at 1:48.13, Aguiar was third in the 100-yard backstroke at 54.80 seconds, while Malsbury was 10th at 1:01.75, Berger finished eighth in the 100-yard breaststroke at 1:04.55, while Humphrey was 10th at 1:05.95. All missed out on qualifying for state.
The qualifiers will compete at the state meet next weekend, Feb. 27-28, at the FMC Natatorium in Westmont in suburban Chicagoland. The preliminaries take place on Friday, and the finals will be competed on Saturday.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
