EDWARDSVILLE – Edwardsville’s Andre Myers qualified for next week’s state meet in two events – the 100-yard butterfly and 100-yard backstroke – and will send three individuals and a relay team to the state meet as the Tigers once again won the IHSA boys swimming sectional meet, held on Saturday at the Chuck Fruit Aquatic Center.
Edwardsville won the meet with 247.5 points, with O’Fallon coming in a close second with 233 points. Chatham Glenwood was third with 182.5 points, Springfield was fourth at 162 points, Jacksonville was fifth with 73 points, Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin Catholic was sixth with 62 points, and Springfield Southeast came in seventh with two points.
The winners in each event, along with those who either met or exceeded the state qualifying time in the specific event, won their way to the state meet.
In the opening event, the 200-yard medley relay, O’Fallon’s team of Oliver Williams, Will Peterson, Justin King, and Nico Columbe won the event at 1:39.17 to go through to state, while Edwardsville’s team of Myers, Jackson Suhre, Bryce Seymour, and Austin Norcio, finished second at 1:39.28, Suhre and Jackson Vinzant of Glenwood tied for first in the 200-yard freestyle, both coming in at 1:49.59, and qualified for state, while Sam Carroll of the Panthers was third at 1:52.05, Alton’s Erick Humphrey was fourth at 1:56.55, Edwardsville’s Logan Heepke was fifth at 1:58.38, Williams came in sixth at 2:00.49, Bram Malsbury of Collinsville was seventh at 2:00.63, Mason Roseman of Father McGivney Catholic had a time of 2:23.15, John Pryor of the Redbirds was in at 2:31.25, and Drew Wittler of Mascoutah had a time of 2:33.02.
King won the 200-yard individual medley to qualify for state, having a time of 2:02.71, while Nick Hasamear of the Kahoks was second at 2:04.67. Daniel Wang of the Tigers was fourth at 2:11.74, Andrew Knef of the Tigers came in at 2:14.92, the Panthers’ Nolan Blankenship was home at 2L15.27, and Conor Jones of Metro-East Lutheran had a time of 2:44.60. Keaton Tuttle of the Indians qualified for state by winning the 50-yard freestyle at 21.94 seconds, with Christopher Meyer of the Panthers second at 21.99 seconds, Norcio came in third at 22.07 seconds, Bryce Light of O’Fallon First Baptist Academy was fourth at 22.35 seconds, Braeden Hopkins of the Panthers came in sixth at 22.57 seconds, Alton’s Nathan Kotzamanis was 11th with a time of 23.38 seconds, and Seymour was 12th at 23.81 seconds. Hasamear came in at 24.04 seconds, Ahmad Fennoy of Belleville East had a time of 26.02 seconds, Andrew Willaredt of Granite City came in at 26.80 seconds, Triad’s Tyler Brokering came in at 27.38 seconds, William Taylor of the Warriors was home at 27.82 seconds, and Jones had a time of 29.57 seconds.
Myers qualified in the 100-yard butterfly by winning the race at 53.80 seconds, with Carroll second at 54.92 seconds, Seymour was seventh at 59.46 seconds, Victor Stafford of the Panthers placed ninth at 1:00.08, and Roseman came in at 1:15.60. Meyer won the 100-yard freestyle at 47.84 seconds to qualify, while Norcio was second at 48.11 seconds, Luke Berger of Collinsville was third at 49.51 seconds, Light came in fourth at 49.67 seconds, and Williams was 11th at 52.31 seconds. Nolan Csaszar of the Tigers came in at 54.08 seconds, while Evan Kershaw of Piasa Southwestern had a time of 58.65 seconds, Willaredt came in a 1:01.48, Taylor had a time of 1:04.78, Elijah Ball of Metro-East Lutheran was home at 1:08.26, and Brokering has a time of 1:12.28.
King won the 500-yard freestyle, qualifying with a time of 4:54.54, while Suhre was second at 5:08.95, Heepke was fourth at 5:24.24,and Thomas Harvey of O’Fallon was seventh at 5:52.06. O’Fallon’s team of Carroll, King, Hopkins, and Meyer won the 200-yard freestyle relay, going through with a time of 1:29.19, while Edwardsville’s team of Seymour, Wang, Csaszar, and Jace Snyder was fifth at 1:37.27, Alton’s team of Kotzamanis, Humphrey, Michael Anderson, and Pryor was sixth at 1:45.27, and Granite’s team of Charlie Bremer, Dylan Sanchez, Taylor, and Willaredt was eighth at 1:51.10. Myers qualified in his second event, the 100-yard backstroke, by winning the race at 51.70 seconds, while Hopkins was second at 53.58 seconds, Tuttle was third at 53.77 seconds, Malsbury was fifth at 1:01.10, Knef was sixth at 1:01.55. and the Panthers’ Trey Filyaw finished in ninth at 1:03.07. Fennoy ended up with a time of 1:10.59, Bremer came in at 1:18.95, and Anderson’s time was 1:20.11.
Maddax Thompson of Carbondale won the 100-yard breaststroke at 56.64 seconds to go through, while Berger was fourth at 1:03.62, Peterson came in seventh at 1:05.69, Wang was ninth at 1:06.14, with Humphrey in 10th at 1:06.43, and Stafford was 12th at 1:08.40. Alan Chen of the Tigers was home at 1:13.21, while Ball’s time was 1:15.25, Kershaw came in at 1:20.94, Pryor had a time of 1:21.97, Sanchez was in at 1:24.93, Bremer’s time was 1:26.09, and Wittler came in at 1:35.44. In the final even, the 400-yard relay, the Tigers’ team of Norcio, Knef, Suhre, and Myers won the race and qualified for state at 3:19.37, while the Panthers’ team of Carroll, Blankenship, Williams, and Stafford were third at 3:28.10.
The state qualifiers will compete in the IHSA state meet next weekend, Feb.28-Mar. 1, at the FMC Natatorium in Westmont. The preliminaries are set for Saturday, while the finals take place Saturday.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
