Highland Splash wins first conference crown

The Highland Splash closed out its summer swim season in an emphatic fashion similar to a tidal wave.

First, on Monday of last week, the Splash blew the Trenton Torpedoes out of the water, 250 to 92, to wrap up the regular season with eight dual-meet wins in a row and finish with a near-perfect 8-1 record. The meet was shortened by lightning, but enough events were completed that it counted as an official meet.

Then on Saturday, Highland not only hosted the Midwest Swim Conference meet for the first time in a decade, but the 2015 Splash made history by becoming the first team in the program’s 36-year existence to be crowned the conference champions.

Conference Champions

The 10-team Midwest Swim Conference was a two-team battle from beginning to end between the favored O’Fallon Breakers, who entered as the defending champions, and the Splash.

But it was the Splash that rung up a final point total of 2,131 to edge O’Fallon (2,111) and dethrone the Breakers.

The rest of the conference combatants finished much farther back: St. Clair Country Club (1,334), Freeburg Waves (1,128), Dupo Hilltoppers (998.50), Dorchester Dolphins (901.50), Kings Point Stingrays (817.50), Westhaven Waves (585.50), Trenton Torphedoes (563.50) and Scott Sharks (459).

“This has been a long time coming,” said Splash coach Alex Rinderer, who is assisted by coaches Ryan Poss, Joel Mason, Sally Barkus and Abby Rinderer. “All of us coaches had no idea what was going to happen. We were seeded to get second by 200 points. Each kid was going to have to score four more points per event they were in. We knew that was a lot.

“The younger kids had the best showing they have ever had at a conference meet. The older kids knew it was time to win a championship and they also did a great job. Each swimmer was pulling in best times, which is exactly what we needed.”

Depth is huge when it comes to winning a championship.

“You cannot just have one or two swimmers who are going to place really high in their age group and then two other swimmers who are going to not get us any points at all,” Alex Rinderer said. “Luckily, we had four great swimmers in almost every age group scoring in the top 16. Only the top 16 score points for the team. This is what helped us beat O’Fallon.”

It is also important to have depth when swimmers get hurt, Alex Rinderer said.

“Victoria Thomae, our top 15-18 girl, is struggling with an injury (shoulder). She still got in and did great, but the other 15-18 girls (Alyssa Freimann, Madi Walter, Emma Drysdale, Addison Rinderer) stepped up when she was absent,” she said.

Helping the Splash take the conference title was the fact that the program fielded the largest swim team since it began. Almost 150 swimmers came out this season.

“We continue to have more of our summer swimmers do winter swim and with Ryan (Poss) and Joel (Mason) starting a winter program, a lot of those swimmers followed them back to Highland,” Alex Rinderer said. “The parents of present Highland Splash swimmers were also passing the word along telling them how great of a program we had, so we got more swimmers that way as well.”

As the head coach, Alex Rinderer said she tries to make the program as comfortable as possible.

“I am the ‘mom’ of the team and take care of the swimmers when they are down and encourage them to keep going,” she said. “As coaches, we communicate almost daily with the parents and swimmers and send out a ‘Sunday Notes’ email of what went well the week before and what we will be focusing on for the following week. The parents like these emails, because it allows them to know what is going on at all times. The parents also know they can call, text, or email us at any time with any concerns.”

The core coaching staff of Alex Rinderer, Poss and Mason, as well as Abby Rinderer, are all former Splash swimmers, and Alex Rinderer said they all love and still have passion for the sport.

“The countless hours of putting together lineups, practice schedules, sending emails, and then coaching all 150 swimmers each day was worth it with our first conference win in 36 years,” Alex Rinderer said. “The Highland Splash swim team is like a huge family. There is support coming from everywhere. The board backs up the coaches and the parents are always willing to help. With great support from parents and the board, the swimmers know what to expect.

“The swimmers wanted this championship as bad as the coaches did. We talked about it everyday and what we could do to be better and get first place. I have to give props to the older swimmers. They demonstrate responsibility, respect and determination to all of the younger swimmers. With the high number of swimmers this year, we had many older kids staying after their own practice and working with individual swimmers.”

Alex Rinderer said the conference championship would not have been possible without the board members stepping up and taking on roles to host the huge meet, while the parents also played a major role in filing all of the jobs and helping it run so smoothly.

“We heard this was one of the best run meets and people would like to have it at Highland all of the time,” Rinderer said. “The swimmers swam out of their minds and showed how bad they wanted this first-place trophy. Thank you community members for donating food, supplies, and time when setting up, tearing down and helping us achieve first place for the first time in 36 years.”

Individual Champions, High Points Placers

The Splash had nine individuals who earned High Points honors for placing in the top 3 of their respective gender’s age group, highlighted by three who were crowned Midwest Swim Conference champions.

The Highland trio who won first place were:

▪ Porter LeVasseur in the boys 13-14 division after racking up all 60 points for winning all three of his individual evens: the 100-meter freestyle (57.45), 100-meter individual medley (1:04.74) and 100-meter backstroke (1:03.40)

▪ Ben Walter in the boys 11-12 division after totaling 57 points for winning both the 50-meter breaststroke (41.19) and the 100-meter individual medley (1:18.35) and taking second place in the 50-meter backstroke (36.38)

▪ Tucker Stephens in the boys 8-and-under division after totaling 55 points for winning both the 25-meter breaststroke (24.70) and 25-meter butterfly (22.7, and finishing fourth in the 25-meter freestyle (18.76)

The half-dozen other Splash swimmers to also achieve High Points honors for placing either second or third in their respective gender’s age group were as follows:

▪ Ben Thomae, second place in the boys 15-18 division with 54 points after winning the boys 15-18 100-meter breaststroke (1:12.24), and claiming second place in both the 100-meter individual medley (1:04.54) and the 50-meter butterfly (28.21)

▪ Anna Henke, second place in the girls 8U division with 54 points after winning the girls 25-meter backstroke (22.26), and taking second place in both the 25-meter freestyle (18.08) and 25-meter breaststroke (23.21)

▪ Sean McGinley, second place in the boys 8U division with 52 points after winning the 25-meter freestyle (17.95), and finishing second in the 25-meter backstroke (22.49) and fourth in the 25-meter breaststroke (26.03)

▪ Dylan Galbiati, third place in the boys 15-18 division with 53 points after winning the 100-meter backstroke (1:06.16), while placing second in the 100-meter breaststroke (1:14.57), third in the 100-meter individual medley (1:06.82) and

▪ Trey Stephens, third place in the boys 13-14 division with 49 points after winning the 50-meter butterfly (30.36), while taking third in the 100-meter breaststroke (1:20.16) and sixth in the 100-meter freestyle (1:03.88)

▪ Cam Runge, third place in the boys 9-10 division with 49 points after capturing second in the 25-meter backstroke (19.17), while placing third in both the 25-meter freestyle (16.58) and 100-meter individual medley (1:36.66)

Victoria Thomae, 15, was also crowned an individual conference champion after winning the girls 15-18 100-meter breaststroke (1:23.16) despite still recovering from her shoulder injury.

In addition, the Splash won first place in five different relay races: the boys 13-18 200-meter medley team of Porter LeVasseur (14, backstroke), Ben Thomae (16, breaststroke), Trey Stephens (13, butterfly), Gunnar Kohlbrecher (16, freestyle), 1:58.75; the boys 12U 100-meter medley relay team of Ben Walter (12, backstroke), Gabe Smith (10, breaststroke), Xander Valdez (12, butterfly), Cam Runge (10, freestyle), 1:13.16; the boys 13-14 200-meter freestyle relay team of Porter LeVasseur, Trey Stephens, Robby Scharp, Peyton Nagel, 1:55.78; the girls 9-10 100-meter freestyle relay team of Rylee Sitton, Ella Drysdale, Ava Michael, Baylie Wells, 1:09.76; and the boys 9-10 100-meter freestyle relay team of Josh Reed, Ryan Tolbert, Cam Runge, Patrick McGinley, 1:10.63.

Shattering Records

Throughout this historic season, Splash swimmers also broke 14 different team records. The records that were shattered were as follows:

▪ Boys 15-18 200-meter freestyle relay team of Gunnar Kohlbrecher, Ben Thomae, Dylan Galbiati and Jonathan Olson with a combined time of 1:45.69 on Saturday, July 18 at the Midwest Swim Conference meet to break the previous record of 1:47.15 set on July 19, 2014 by Gunnar Kohlbrecher, Ben Thomae, SYlan Galbiati and Jacob McKinley

▪ Ben Thomae in the boys 15-18 100-meter individual medley record with a time of 1:04.54 on Saturday, July 18 at the Midwest Swim Conference meet to break the previous record of 1:04.62 set by Josh Wegrzyn on July 25, 1998

▪ Ben Thomae in the boys 15-18 100-yard individual medley record with a time of 59.76 on June 23 to break the previous record of 59.85 set by Josh Wegrzyn on June 30, 1998

▪ Ben Thomae in the boys 15-18 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:06.71 on June 23 to break the previous record of 1:06.90 set by Christian Rhoten on July 10, 2007

▪ Victoria Thomae in the girls 15-18 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:12.88 on June 23 to break the previous record of 1:06.90 set by Chelsie Hahn on July 8, 2004

▪ Victoria Thomae in the girls 15-18 100-meter freestyle with a time of 1:01.62 on June 16 to break the previous record of 1:04.14 set by Chelsie Hahn on July 24, 2004

▪ Porter LeVasseur in the boys 13-14 100-meter individual medley with a time of 1:04.74 on Saturday, July 18 to break the previous record of 1:09.55 set by Aaron Dimig on June 23, 1988

▪ Porter LeVasseur in the boys 13-14 100-meter backstroke with a time of 1:03.40 on July 18 to break the previous record of 1:09.69 set by Jacob McKinley on July 11, 2013

▪ Porter LeVasseur in the boys 13-14 100-meter freestyle with a time of 57.45 on July 18 to break the previous record of 58.47 set by Jacob McKinley on July 20, 2013

▪ Porter LeVasseur in the boys 13-14 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:00.54 on July 8 to break the previous record of 1:11.09 set by Aaron Dimig on July 25, 1987

▪ Porter LeVasseur in the boys 13-14 50-meter butterfly with a time of 30.01 on July 7 to break the previous record of 30.64 set by Jacob McKinley on June 13, 2013

▪ Trey Stephens in the boys 13-14 50-yard butterfly with a time of 27.81 on June 23 to break the previous record of 28.18 set by Michael McGinley on June 28, 1990

▪ Ben Walter in the boys 11-12 50-meter backstroke with a time of 33.08 on July 18 to break the previous record of 33.32 set by Todd Bergman on July 27, 2002

▪ Anna Henke in the girls 8U 25-meter breaststroke with a time of 23.21 on July 18 to break the previous record of 23.31 set by Ally Becker on July 18, 2003

Trenton Dual Meet

The meet against Trenton was cut short due to lightning and missed all of the butterfly events and all of the freestyle relays, as well as three backstroke races: the boys 13-14 100-meter and both the girls 15-18 100 and boys 15-18 100.

But the meet’s length being abbreviated did not deter from Highland’s dominance over Trenton, as the Splash captured 33 of the 39 points events that were completed.

After sweeping all four of the meet-opening medley relays, Highland reeled off eight of the 10 freestyle events, eight of the 10 breaststroke races, seven of the eight individual medleys and six of the seven backstroke competitions.

Without the three remaining backstroke events and all of the butterfly races being competed, the Splash still had seven swimmers win both of their individual events that they had competed in thus far:

▪ Ben Thomae in the boys 15-18 100-meter breaststroke (1:14.89) and 100-meter individual medley (1:06.94)

▪ Trey Stephens in the boys 13-14 100-meter freestyle (1:06.65) and 100-meter individual medley (1:14.09)

▪ Tess Korte in the girls 13-14 100-meter freestyle (1:17.12) and 100-meter individual medley (1:24.84)

▪ Ella Drysdale in the girls 9-10 25-meter freestyle (16.97) and 25-meter backstroke (21.50)

▪ Ben Walter in the boys 11-12 100-meter breaststroke (1:14.89) and 100-meter individual medley (1:06.94)

▪ Gabe Smith in the boys 9-10 25-meter freestyle (17.63) and 25-meter breaststroke (21.59)

▪ Sean MGinley in the boys 8-Under 25-meter freestyle (19.85) and 25-meter backstroke (25.63)

This story was originally published July 22, 2015 at 5:08 AM with the headline "Highland Splash wins first conference crown."