EDWARDSVILLE -Edwardsville's swimmers came alive in the second half of Saturday's IHSA Boys Sectional Swim Meet at Springfield to post some quality performances.
The Tigers did not advance anyone to the IHSA State Meet.
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Edwardsville's Brian Baggette, who reached last year's IHSA State Swim Meet in the 500 freestyle, just missed out on returning in the same event, finishing third at Saturday's sectional at Springfield in 4:46.53, slightly more of a second over the state qualifying time of 4:45.38 (all event winners and those who beat the IHSA's qualifying times advanced to the state meet).
The host Senators won the team title with 292 points, the Tigers scoring 164 points to finish second; Chatham Glenwood was third (139) and O'Fallon was fourth (128), followed by Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin (85), Jacksonville (73), Jacksonville Routt (18) and Springfield Southeast (17); the Redbirds did not field a full team for the meet.
“I think we did better than we expected in some events,” said Tiger coach Christian Rhoten. “We started off a little bit slower than we expected, but we really dropped it into gear around the midpoint of the meet and just took off from there.
“I loved the back half of the meet; everyone just got into the groove and really went fast there.”
Baggette just missing out on a return to the state meet was a heartbreaker, Rhoten felt.
“I'm still happy with the time; I really liked the time from him," Rhoten said. "We had some really nice relays though; one of the highlights of the day was our 2-3-4 relay was putting up some stellar times, a nice little combo to put together for that relay.
“I couldn't ask for anything better; we did what we needed to do and we got second in the meet, which we done the last three years. Springfield is super-good this year; we're going to keep on training and some of our underclassmen are really looking strong for the coming years.”
Other top Tiger performances on the day was Alex Nager finishing third in diving with 295.20 points; Alan Benson's fifth-place finish in the 100 butterfly (53.68 seconds); the 4x50 freestyle (1:30.56) and 4x100 freestyle (3:18.31) relays both taking second, with Tyler Morris, Baggette, Logan Mills and Benson on both teams.
Alton’s Noah Clancy, a freshman, qualified for next weekend's IHSA Boys Swimming Championship at New Trier High School in Winnetka, winning the 100-yard backstroke in 51.82 seconds at Saturday's IHSA Boys Springfield Sectional meet at Eisenhower Pool; he was the only area swimmer who advanced to the state meet.
Besides Clancy's first-place finish, he took fifth in the 100 breaststroke in 1:03.27. Other Redbird finishes included the 4x50 medley relay team of Clancy, Aiden Napp, Caden and Cole Akal finishing second in 1:39.56; Caden Akal taking fourth in the 50 freestyle in 22.24 seconds, Cole Akal finishing fifth in the 100 freestyle in 49.42 seconds and the 4x50 freestyle relay team of Clancy, Cole Akal, Napp and Caden Akal finishing right behind the Tigers in 1:31.59.
Swimmers from Granite City, McGivney Catholic, Metro East Lutheran, Triad and Collinsville also took part in the meet; one Kahok swimmer, Vinny O'Connor, won the 50 freestyle in 21.47 seconds. 
