Tigers Capture Big Wins in Southern Illinois High School Championships, Compete in Sectional

EDWARDSVILLE - The Edwardsville High girls swimming team had a double winner in Allison Naylor as the Tigers won their final meet of the regular season in taking the recent Southern Illinois High School Championships at the Chuck Fruit Aquatic Center.

The Tigers won 10 of the 11 events on the program in winning the meet with 323 points, with O'Fallon coming in second with 281 points, Granite City third at 160, Triad coming in fourth with a score of 147, Collinsville was fifth at 78, and Belleville Althoff Catholic was sixth with a total of 14 points.

The meet serves as both a warm-up for the sectional meet and also gives other swimmers a chance to swim in a meet. And as a team, Tiger coach Christian Rhoten was very pleased with how things turned out. Saturday afternoon, the Tigers compete in a sectional in Springfield and Rhoten said he expects time drops across the board. He expects the 200 medley relay to be the most exciting race of the day.

"The girls have done months of preparation and we are all anxious to get to the meet and go fast," he said.

Rhoten continued: "We had some good swims in our last prep meet for sectionals. "Now we are full steam ahead for sectionals and state. Our relays are shaping up, and we are hoping to get some finalists at the state meet."

Naylor's two wins came in the Southern Illinois High School Swim Championships came in the 50-yard freestyle, with a time of 25.45 seconds, and the 500-yard freestyle, clocking a 5:30.19. Josie Bushell also had a win in the 200-yard freestyle, coming in at 2:00.03, and also had a third-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke, having a time of 1:15.08.

Autumn Grinter was also a winner for the Tigers, taking the 100-yard freestyle in 56.40 seconds, while Phoebe Gremaud won the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:14.44. Ally Janson was the winner in the 100-yard backstroke at 1:04.20, while Olivia Ramirez took the 100-yard breaststroke at 1:12.84.

The relays, long a team strength, shined again. The 200-yard medley team of Gremaud, Ramirez, Naylor and Grinter won the event with a time of 1:55.92, the 200-yard freestyle team of Bushell, Maddie Milburn, Naylor and Grinter won in 1:42.73, and the 400-yard freestyle team of Gremaud, Janson, Milburn and Naylor were the winners, coming in at 3:55.09.

Qualifiers Saturday advance to the state meet on Nov. 22 at New Trier High School in Winnetka.

Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.

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Dan Brannan also contributed to this story

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