WESTMONT – Edwardsville qualified two of its relay teams – the 200-yard medley relay, and the 200-yard freestyle relay – for the state championship finals, while O’Fallon’s Allyssa Albertyn qualified for both the 200-yard and 100-yard freestyle finals at the IHSA state girls swimming preliminaries Friday afternoon at the FHC Natatorium in Westmont, in suburban Chicago.
The 200-yard medley relay team of Scout Jackson, Greta Deist, Reilly Curry, and Grace Oertle qualified eighth for the championship final with a time of 1:45.10, while Albertyn finished third in the preliminaries for the 200-yard freestyle at 1:48.54. Laine Curry of the Tigers finished 20th at 1:53.98, and Samantha Stooke of O’Fallon First Baptist Academy was 46th at 1:59.71, with both missing the cut for the finals.
In the 200-yard individual medley, Reilly Curry finished 29th at 2:08:51, while Belleville Althoff Catholic’s Emalee Fruechte was 42nd at 2:12.18, with both failing to advance. In the 50-yard freestyle, Oertle qualified for the B final by placing 10th with a time of 23.66 seconds, with Edwardsville’s Natalie Kaiser scoring 185.70 points in the first round of the diving competition to place 39th, but did not move on to the semifinal round.
Sarah Dixon of Mascoutah qualified for the B final of the 100-yard butterfly with a 16th-place finish at 56,60 seconds, but Reilly Curry finished 28th at 58.20 seconds and failed to qualify. Albertyn qualified third for the 100-yard freestyle final with a time of 50.12 seconds, with Laine Curry placing 27th at 52.88 seconds, missing the cut. The Tigers’ Morgan Mitton also missed the cut in the 500-yard freestyle, placing 26th at 5:08.75, while the 200-yard freestyle relay team of Jackson, Deist, Laine Curry, and Oertle qualified seventh for the state championship race, coming in at 1:34.94.
Jackson will swim in the B final of the 100-yard backstroke, finishing 12th with a time of 56.16 seconds, while Highland’s Kallie Hubbard finished 33rd in the 100-yard breaststroke at 1:07.91, and failed to advance. Finally, in the 400-yard freestyle relay, the Tigers’ team of Laine Curry, Jackson, Reilly Curry, and Oertle finished 11th at 3:30.25, and will swim in the B final.
The finals of all races, as well as the awarding of championship points, will take place Saturday afternoon.
