EDWARDSVILLE - It was a big day for the Edwardsville girls swimming team, as the relay teams set three new pool records, junior Scout Jackson qualified in two events, recorded a qualifying time for the Junior National swim meet, and helped the Tigers to their 11th straight IHSA sectional championship Saturday at the Chuck Fruit Aquatic Center.
Edwardsville won going away with 330 points, with Chatham Glenwood second at 190 points, O'Fallon came in third with 153 points, Springfield was in fourth place with 77 points, Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin Catholic took fifth place with 49 points, Jacksonville was sixth with 19 points, and Jacksonville Routt Catholic was seventh with seven points.
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Tigers' head coach Christian Rhoten was very impressed with the results, even with very high expectations going into the meet.
"This is our 11th sectional championship for girls," Rhoten said, "and I struggle to remember one that was as successful as this one was, pretty much across the board. The athletes, starting with diving, just really performed beyond my expectations, and my expectations were ridiculously high coming into this season. So, they came to play today, and they definitely showed it."
Across the board, it was a highly successful day for the Tigers, and Rhoten couldn't have been more pleased with what happened.
"I knew they were excited," Rhoten said, "and I knew they would swim fast. I guess I didn't know how fast they were going to go. Especially because this is a lot like the team we had last year, with some additions to our freshman class, which we had some freshmen on the team this year that were pretty impactful. If you look at our medley relay, it was the same four girls as last year (Jackson, Karis Chen, Reilly Curry, and Grace Oertle), they went more than two seconds faster, which is just incredible.
"I mean, to have a 22 split from Grace multiple times today was unbelievable. Scout's 100 backstroke, she's been thinking about that Junior National cut for a long time, and those are very, very legitimate times when you start going Junior National cuts. She's actually the first athlete, I think, since Bailey (Grinter) that I've coached that's has gone a Junior National time, so that's pretty exciting."
It's going to be a very experienced group of swimmers that's going to compete in next week's state meet, and Rhoten is optimistic of success for the team going into the meet.
"Yeah, I definitely think having them up there last year was an eye-opening experience for them," Rhoten said, "Being able to final a couple of relays, got some individuals back for day two, so, the times they went today, if they could just repeat those times, they we should definitely be swimming on Saturday. Knowing that going up is just like the sectional meet was qualifying for state, Friday at state is qualifying for the finals. I think everyone's going to be a lot more like excited, less nervous, just knowing that what they've done, if they could just do it again, should do the trick. It was a great day. We're going to state."
The Edwardsville relay teams won all three of the races to qualify for state in new CFAC records, starting with the 200-yard medley relay team of Jackson, Chen, Curry, and Oertle won at 1:43.39, then the 200-yard freestyle team of Chen, Jackson, Curry, and Oertle won their race at 1:35.41, and the 400-yard freestyle team of Oertle, Reilly Curry, Laine Curry, and Georgia Samet won at 3:31.56 to sweep the relays and qualify for state.
There were four qualifiers in the 200-yard freestyle, with Albertyn winning at 1:48.65, Laine Curry finishing second at 1:53.14, Samantha Stobbe of O'Fallon First Baptist Academy third at 1:54.80. and Glada Santanella of Belleville Althoff Catholic fourth at 1:55.54. Three swimmers went through in the 200-yard individual medley, with Reilly Curry winning at 2:07.61, Trenton Wesclin's second at 2:09.22, and Samet coming in third at 2:09.76.
Oertle was the lone qualifier in the 50-yard freestyle, winning with a time of 23.34 seconds, while both Jackson and Reilly Curry qualified for the 100-yard butterfly, Jackson winning at 56.22 seconds, and Curry coming in second at 58.22 seconds. Albertyn won the 100-yard freestyle with a qualifying time of 49.94 seconds, while Kunz also qualified at 52.28 seconds.
Stobbe was the lone qualifier in the 500-yard freestyle, coming in at 5:12.31, while Jackson made the cut time for the Junior Nationals in the 100-yard backstroke, winning at 55.07 seconds, while Reilly Curry also qualified in second at 57.80 seconds. In the 100-yard breaststroke, Chen won with a time of 1:05.78, with Samet also qualifying in second at 1:06.51, and they'll be joined by third place finisher Kallie Hubbard of Highland, who came in at 1:06.78.
The state qualifiers will be competing this coming weekend, Nov. 15-16, at the FMC Natatorium in Westmont, in suburban Chicago. The preliminary competition takes place Friday, with the finals on Saturday.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
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