EDWARDSVILLE – The O’Fallon boys swimming team won six of the 12 events on the program, while Edwardsville won four, and as a result, the Panthers took home the championship of the annual Swim For Hope meet, held Saturday at the Chuck Fruit Aquatic Center.
O’Fallon scored 339 points to win the meet, with Chatham Glenwood coming in second with 296 points, Springfield was third with 248 points, the Tigers were fourth at 207 points, and Petersburg PORTA finished fifth with 67 points.
The meet involves races and other events that aren’t usually competed, to make things fun for the swimmers, and is a fund-raising event for cancer research.
The meet started off with Andrew Kotner of the Senators taking the one-meter springboard diving competition with 363.05 points, while Micah Finckbone of the Tigers was third with 238.85 points. In the 100-yard medley relay, the O’Fallon team of Oliver Williams, Brady Hopkins, Justin King, and Christopher Meyer won with a time of 47.05 seconds, while Edwardsville’s team of Andre Myers, Jackson Suhre, Austin Norcio, and Jace Snyder came in second at 47.97 seconds.
The Panthers’ B team of Trey Filyaw, Will Peterson, Nolan Blankenship, and Nico Columbe finished sixth with a time of 56,23 seconds. In the 50-yard breaststroke, Riley Herr of Springfield was the winner with a time of 29.79 seconds, while Suhre was second at 31.53 seconds, and Edwardsville teammate Daniel Wang came in fifth at 31.68 seconds. Peterson was sixth at 31.80 seconds, and O’Fallon teammate Elliott Mason came in eighth at 34.47 seconds.
The Tigers went one-two in the 50-yard freestyle, as Norcio won the final at 22.32 seconds, and Myers was second at 22.73 seconds. King was seventh at 24.08 seconds, and Suhre was eighth at 24.29 seconds. The Panthers’ team of Sam Carroll, King, Hopkins, and Meyer won the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:34.46. with Edwardsville’s team of Snyder, Nolan Csaszar. Andrew Knef, and Logan Heepke coming in third at 1:39.43. O’Fallon’s B team of Zachary Rosborg, Mason, Blankenship, and Columbe were fifth at 1:40.93, and the Panthers’ C team of Dawson Ashley, Thomas Harvey, Peterson, and Bernie Bossler were seventh at 1:50.21. In the 100-yard butterfly, Kareem Zeino of Glenwood won with a time of 59.07 seconds, while King was second at 59.11 seconds, and Blankenship finished fifth at 1:10.27.
Myers went on to win the 50-yard backstroke at 25.03 seconds, while Hopkins was second at 26.57 seconds, Williams came in fifth at 28.35 seconds, and Knef was seventh at 30.57 seconds. The Panthers took the top two positions in the 100-yard breaststroke, as Hopkins won at 1:09.42, while Peterson was second at 1:10.20, The Tigers won the 100-yard freestyle relay, as the team of Myers, Norcio, Suhre, and Knef came in at 42,58 seconds, while the Panthers’ team of Carroll, Columbe, Williams, and Meyer placed second at 42.74 seconds, O’Fallon’s B team of Cristo, Filyaw, Mason, and Rosborg were fifth at 45.63 seconds, and the Tigers’ B team of Wang, Bryce Seymour, Eli Myers and Alan Chen came in eighth at 47.78 seconds.
Meyer won the 100-yard freestyle at 51.77 seconds, with Williams coming in second at 53.38 seconds. James Maeda of Springfield won the 50-yard butterfly at 25.55 seconds, while Carroll was second at 26.14 seconds, Andre Myers was fourth at 26.77 seconds, Seymour came in sixth at 28.39 seconds, and Filyaw was 10th at 30.00 seconds. In the final event of the meet, the 100-yard individual medley, King won the race at 59.79 seconds, with Wang coming in sixth at 1:04.25, Blankenship was seventh at 1:05.27, and Heepke came in eighth at 1:06.23.
