EDWARDSVILLE - McLain Oertle won two events, while Logan Mills won another and a pair of relay teams each took first place as the Edwardsville High boys swimming team finished second in the annual Swim for Life meet Monday afternoon at the Chuck Fruit Aquatic Center.
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Chatham Glenwood won the meet with 405 points, with the Tigers coming in second with a score of 361 points. O'Fallon was third with 308 points, Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin Catholic was fourth with 171 points, Springfield High came in fifth, scoring 107 points, and Mt. Carmel was sixth with 84 points.
The meet is a benefit for Allison's HOPE, which raises money towards cancer research and hopes to help find a cure for the disease. It's also a meet that includes college-style events at longer distances mixed in with regular high school events. Edwardsville head coach Christian Rhoten used the meet to give his team a challenge, and he felt that the Tigers handled everything very well.
"Today, I tried to really challenge all our athletes by giving them something they had never swam before, something they haven't swam in a long time, or at least something that made them nervous," Rhoten said. "Learning how to deal with those feelings and still perform is an important part of the process, and I feel that our guys really learned a lot from the competition today. We had quite a few lifetime best times, and we were able to swim against the three big Springfield teams as well as O'Fallon at the same time, which is always fun."
Oertle won two events in the meet, taking the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:03.06, and the 200-yard backstroke, coming in at 2:09.62. Mills won the 100-yard butterfly at 56.51 seconds, while the 200-yard freestyle relay team won its event at 1:35.77, and the 400-yard medley relay team won with a time of 3:51.65.
Other Edwardsville highlights included Matthew Doyle and Logan Oertle finishing fourth and fifth in the 1,000-yard freestyle with times of 11:29.39 and 11:47.19 respectively, Luke DeConcini taking third in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:09.76, Preston LeVasseur finishing second in the 100-yard backstroke at 1:03.15, and Mills finishing behind McLain Oertle in the 100-yard breaststroke at 1:08.07.
In addition, Owen Gruben placed second in both the 200-yard butterfly and 100-yard freestyle, his respective times being 2:24.33 and 54.18 seconds, Evan Grinter taking second behind McLain Oertle in the 200-yard backstroke, his time being 2:12.09, Andrew Billhartz came in fourth in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:32.19, Max Brandmeyer coming in second in the 500-yard freestyle at 5:47.53, Grinter finishing third in the 400-yard individual medley at 5:02.91, Logan Oertle finishing fifth in the 100-yard butterfly at 1:08.89, and the 800-yard freestyle relay team taking third at 8:36.97.
Colin Feeney also contributed to this story.
