EDWARDSVILLE - The Edwardsville boys swimming team won 10 of the 12 events on the day, going one-two in six of them, as the Tigers won a dual meet over Springfield High and Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin Catholic in a triangular meet Saturday afternoon at the Chuck Fruit Aquatic Center.
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The Tigers won the meet with 165 points, with the Cyclones coming in second with 83 points, and the Senators in third with 65 points.
Things started well for Edwardsville in the opening race, the 200-yard medley relay, as the team of Matthew Doyle, McLain Oertle, Owen Gruben and Jake DeConcini won the event with a time of 1:46.93, with the team of Preston LeVasseur, Andrew Billhartz, Max Brandmeyer and Trent Sholl finishing second, coming in at 1:56.47. The trend continued in the 200-yard freestyle, where Evan Grinter won the race with a time of 1:57.30, and teammate Logan Oertle coming in second at 2:03.04. The Tigers again went one-two in the 200-yard individual medley, with Gruben winning with a time of 2:22.92, and Billhartz in second at 2:24.39.
McLain Oertle made it four in a row for Edwardsville with a win in the 50-yard freestyle, coming in at 23.48 seconds, with DeConcini finishing third at 25.75 seconds. Tyler Scheibel then came in second in the one-meter springboard diving competition, scoring 155.05 points, while Henry Gruben came in fourth with a score of 138.20 points. Doyle and Grinter then finished in the top two of the 100-yard butterfly, with times of 1:00.80 and 1:01.31 respectively, with Sholl and LeVasseur coming in second and third in the 100-yard freestyle, their times being 57.50 seconds and 59.85 seconds. Owen Gruben then won the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:37.15, DeConcini coming in fourth at 6:46.43. The 200-yard freestyle relay team of McLain Oertle, Billhartz, Logan Oertle and Grinter won the event with a time of 1:37.05, the team of Jaxon Elie, Canon Adams, Sholl and Javier DeLaCruz were second with a time of 1:45.99.
In the 100-yard backstroke, the winner was Logan Oertle, coming in at 1:01.69, with LeVasseur finishing fifth at 1:09.27. McLain Oertle and Billhartz finished one-two in the 100-yard breaststroke with times of 1:04.27 and 1:11.39 respectively, and in the final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay team of Grinter. Logan Oertle, Owen Gruben and Doyle won the race at 3:46.52, while the team of LeVasseur, Brandmeyer, DeConcini and Adams came in third at 4:02.92.
The Tigers will compete in the IHSA Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin sectional meet Feb. 22 at Eisenhower Pool, with the state meet taking place Feb. 28-29 at Evanston High School's William Dobson Bryan Aquatic Center in suburban Chicago.
McLain Oertle Wins Twice, Mills Also Finishes First As Tigers Come In Second In Swim For Life Meet
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.
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.
