WESTMONT – No area swimmers were able to advance to the state finals on Saturday, March 1, 2025. Still, they performed well at the IHSA boys swimming state meet preliminaries on Friday afternoon, Feb. 28, 2025, at the FHC Natatorium in Westmont.
The top eight swimmers in the preliminaries will compete for the state individual titles on Saturday, where points will be awarded, while the second eight swimmers qualify for the B final, where the top swimmers in those races will be awarded team points.
In the opening event, the 200-yard medley relay, the O’Fallon team of Oliver Williams, Braeden Hopkins, Justin King, and Christopher Meyer were disqualified and didn’t place in their race, while in the 200-yard freestyle, Edwardsville’s Jackson Suhre came in at 1:58.07, and in the 200-yard individual medley, King was timed at 2:02.79. In the 50-yard freestyle, Keenan Tuttle of Mascoutah had a time of 21,71 seconds, but did not advance to the final.
In the one-meter springboard diving, Derek Ruehl of the Tigers finished 32nd in the preliminaries with 199.55 points, but didn’t advance to the semifinals. In the 100-yard butterfly, Edwardsville’s Andre Myers had a time of 53.81 seconds, while in the 100-yard freestyle, Meyer came in at 48.04 seconds. In the 500-yard freestyle, King came in at 4:55.16, but all failed to qualify for the finals.
O’Fallon’s 200-yard freestyle relay team of Hopkins, Sam Carroll, King, and Meyer had a time of 1:28.40, while in the 100-yard backstroke, Myers came in at 52.88 seconds,, with Maddax Thompson of Carbondale having a time of the 100-yard breaststroke of 56.14 seconds, qualifying him for the B final. Finally, in the 400-yard freestyle relay, Edwardsville’s team of Myers, Andrew Knef, Suhre, and Austin Norcio had a time of 3:29.57, but did not qualify for the finals.
The finals in all events will take place Saturday afternoon in Westmont.
