EDWARDSVILLE – The Edwardsville High School boys swimming team won nine of the 11 events on the program, while Collinsville and Granite City won one event each, as the Tigers won the Southern Illinois Boys Championships meet Thursday evening at the Chuck Fruit Aquatic Center.
The Tigers won the meet with 314 points, with the Warriors coming in second at 163 points, Alton was third with 134 points and the Kahoks came in fourth with 107 points in the final meet before the IHSA sectional meet on Feb. 18 at the CFAC.
Edwardsville started off on the right foot with a win in the 200-yard medley relay, as the team of Alex Ge, Austin Norcio, Andre Myers and Andrew Knef came in at 1:53.30, while Alton’s team of Nathan Kotzamanis, Victor Humphrey, Christian Kotzamanis and Lucas Frye was third at 1:59.31 and Collinsville’s team of Aiden Gimple, Luke Berger, Brad Lentz and Brody Bronnbauer was fourth at 2:04.69. Cohen Osborn won the first of his two events for the Tigers by taking the 200-yard freestyle at 1:43.46, with Norcio coming in second at 1:59.50 and Granite’s David Wilson taking fifth at 2:29.00. In the 200-yard individual medley, Eddie Myers of Edwardsville won the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:03.00, with teammate Logan Heeple second at 2:21,43 and Frye placing third at 2:55.16.
In the 50-yard freestyle, the Tigers’ Owen Gruben won the race at 23.23 seconds, with Berger second at 23.72 seconds, Granite’s Sam Klee was third at 24.29 seconds, Ge came in fourth at 24,43 seconds, in fifth place was Alex Weaver of the Warriors at 25.17 seconds, Christian Kotzamanis was seventh with a time of 25.30 seconds, Luke Norton of the Redbirds tied for ninth with Granite’s Brady Smallie, both coming in at 26.70 seconds, with Norton receiving the points and Lentz came in at 27.77 seconds. The Tigers’ Hunter Schuleter won the 1-meter springboard diving event with 328.15 points, with teammate Dane Fallis second at 273.15 points and the Warriors’ Dylan Sanchez was fourth at 213.80 points.
Osborn won his second event of the meet for Edwardsville in taking the 100-yard butterfly at 53.67 seconds, with Eddie Myers coming in second at 56.23 seconds, Klee came in sixth at 1:02.80 and Lentz was seventh at 1:11.48, Berger won the Kahoks’ only event in the 100-yard freestyle, coming in at 51.95 seconds, Nathan Kotzamanis was third at 56.53 seconds, Christian Kotzamanis was fourth with a time of 56.50 seconds, Knef came in fifth at 56.85 seconds, Weaver was seventh at 1:01, his Granite teammate, Christopher Taylor, was eighth at 1:02.21 and Bronnbauer came in at 1:07.06. In the 200-yard freestyle relay, the Edwardsville team of Andre Myers, Eddie Myers, Gruben and Cohen won the race at 1:33.94, while the Warriors’ team of Maddox Kennedy, Weaver, Taylor and Klee were third at 1:51.15, Collinsville’s team of Gimple, Berger, Lentz and Bronnbauer were fourth at 1:51.35 and the Redbirds’ team of Nathan Kotzamanis, Frye, Humphrey and Michael Anderson were sixth at 1:54.55.
Heeple won the 100-yard backstroke at 1:07.55, while Nathan Kotzamanis was second at 1:10.23, Frye came in third at 1:18.04, Edwardsville’s Bryce Seymour was fourth at 1:19.51 and Taylor came in sixth at 1:26.89. Kennedy took the only event for the Warriors with a win in the 100-yard breaststroke, coming in at 1:07.62, with the Tigers’ Ridge Batchelor second at 1:13.44, Andre Myers came in third at 1:18.62, Wilson was sixth at 1:19.53, Humphrey came in eighth at 1:23.72 and Bronnbauer scored points for the Kahoks with a time of 1:27.92. In the final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay, Edwardsville’s team of Norcio, Eddie Myers, Gruben and Osborn won with a time of 3:26.13, while the Warriors’ team of Weaver, Smallie, Taylor and Kennedy were second at 4:27.28.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
