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Water Works' girls swimming team led the way as the Marlins edged Paddlers of Granite City 340-337 in a Southwestern Illinois Swimming Association meet Thursday night at Paddlers.
The Marlin girls scored a big 201-141 win over the Pirates, while the Paddlers boys downed Water Works 196-139.
The disparity in the scores was simple, said Marlin coach David Albers. “We do have far less boys on the team especially as they get older,” Albers said. “There were some races where Paddlers scored all the available points in the race simply because we just didn't have swimmers in those races.”
The Marlin girls, however, made up the difference, and Albers was pleased to see it. “Our girls did a fantastic job,” Albers said. “They came out and did everything they'd worked on in practice this last week; it really paid off for them.
“Everyone last night looked great. We've spent the last week working on things my assistant coach and I saw in our meet against Splash City. The kids were really receptive to those things and worked really hard on them. They looked so much better in the water. They were doing all the little things we talked about.”
Triple winners for the Marlins Thursday included Spencer Sholl (boys 15-18 200 freestyle, 100 individual medley and 100 breaststroke), Cohen Osborn (boys 9-10 50 freestyle, 100 IM, 50 butterfly), Rachel Kretzer (girls 8-and-under 25 freestyle, 25 backstroke and 25 butterfly) and Sahar Rabiei (girls 13-14 100 freestyle, 50 freestyle, 50 butterfly). Double winners included Matthiew Doyle, Trent Sholl, Nicholas Werts and Liam Oertle on the boys side and Svannah Grinter, Chloe Harrison, Olivia Ramirez and Allison Naylor on the girls side.
Other boys winners for the Marlins included Logan Mills, Ryan Harrison, Canon Adams and Benjamin Werts, while other girls winners included Baily Grinter, Rachel Kretzer, Kierstynn Fisher, Camryn Mills, Isabella Doyle and Elizabeth McPherson. Winning relay teams included the boys 13-14 4x50 medley, 11-12 4x50 freestyle and 13-14 4x50 freestyle, while winning girls relay teams included the 8-and-under 4x25 medley, 11-12 4x25 medley, 15-18 4x50 medley, 8-and-under 4x25 freestyle, 9-10 4x50 freestyle, 11-12 4x50 freestyle and 15-18 4x50 freestyle.
The Marlins will host crosstown rival Sunset Hills at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the season finale for both teams. The SWISA Diving and JV Championships are set for Summers Port at 9 a.m. July 18 and the SWISA Swimming Championship will be held at 9 a.m. July 19 at Paddlers.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
