Highland Splash bite Sharks, cap off undefeated regular season
The Highland Splash had already wrapped up its first dual-meet title in a dozen years and the last piece of business to take care of in the regular season was to swim the postponed meet against the Scott Air Force Base Sharks on Tuesday night and put a cap on a rare undefeated regular season,
Highland easily passed its final test after taking a bite out of the Scott Sharks, 190 to 54, in a storm-shortened meet Tuesday night at Highland Community Pool to put an exclamation point on a perfect 11-0 campaign.
“We went 11-0, which is great!!” said Highland co-coach Alex Rinderer, who shares the head coaching duties with Ryan Poss and the duo is assisted by Joel Mason and Abby Rinderer. “We knew we had the depth and talent this year to go undefeated. So many age groups have so many great swimmers that we could trade point swims between 8-12 swimmers and still place in the top three each race.”
Now that the Splash have reached their regular-season goal of perfection, the focus now is on repeating as Midwest Swim Conference champions for the first time in program history. The O’Fallon Breakers, who will be Highland’s biggest challenger for the conference crown is hosting the meet on Saturday.
“These swimmers have been dedicated this season and are very excited for conference,” Rinderer said. “Projections are very close for first and second at conference. The winner will be determined as to who shows up, races hard, and wants that first place trophy! We for sure do!”
Highland opened the meet by sweeping all four of the medley relays (including the event name, swimmer’s name, age and discipline, as well as the team’s overall team time: the boys 15-18 200-meter medley relay team of Ethan Drysdale (14, backstroke), Dylan Galbiati (17, breaststroke), Jonny Olson (16, butterfly) and Austin Roach (14, freestyle), 2:12.31; the girls 15-18 200-meter medley relay team of Alyssa Freimann (16, backstroke), Nora Thiems (14, breaststroke), Tess Korte (14, butterfly), Francie Hemann (13, freestyle), 2:26.25; the boys 12 and under 100-meter medley relay team of Cam Runge (11, backstroke), Gabe Smith (11, breaststroke), Ryan Tolbert (10, butterfly) and Sean McGinley (8, freestyle), 1:20.43; and the girls 12 and under medley relay team of Olivia Conrad (12, backstroke), Macy Smith (12, breaststroke), Ella Drysdale (10, butterfly) and Jackie Barkus (10, freestyle), 1:16.00.
Ethan Schmidt was the lone Splash swimmer to win two events before the meet was stopped at about the halfway point. He touched the wall first in the boys 9-10 25-meter freestyle (19.78) and the 25-meter breaststroke (29.86).
Winning one race each for the Splash were: Gunnar Kohlbrecher in the boys 15-18 100 freestyle (59.25); Alyssa Freimann in the girls 15-18 100 freestyle (1:10.31); Dylan Galbiati in the boys 15-18 100 breaststroke (1:16.340; Nora Thiems in the girls 15-18 100 breaststroke (1:31.24); Francie Hemann in the girls 13-14 100 freestyle (1:13.06); Audrey Habing in the girls 13-14 100 breaststroke (1:36.80); Cam Runge in the boys 11-12 100 individual medley (1:30.81); Taryn Stephens in the girls 11-12 100 individual medley (1:21.71); Madeleine Schmidt in the girls 11-12 50 freestyle (31.49);
Jude Henke in the boys 11-12 50 freestyle (33.46); Macy Smith in the girls 11-12 50 breaststroke (44.16); Gabe Smith in the boys 11-12 50 breaststroke (48.73); Ella Drysdale in the girls 9-10 25 freestyle (17.49); Ryan Tolbert in the boys 10 and under 100 individual medley (1:42.93); Tucker Stephens in the boys 8 and under 25 breaststroke (23.13); Emily Geisen in the girls 8 and under 25 freestyle (20.43); and Ethan Walter in the boys 8 and under 25 freestyle (22.09).
Also scoring for Highland were: Ben Walter, second in the boys 15-18 100 breaststroke (1:22.97); Jordan Mercer, second in the girls 15-18 100 breaststroke (1:36.39); Abbi Imming, second in the girls 13-14 100 freestyle (1:14.49); Chloe Marti, second in the girls 13-14 100 breaststroke (1:37.56); Andrew Thomae, second in the boys 13-14 100 breaststroke (1:32.71); Cam Runge, second in the boys 11-12 50 freestyle (35.21); Ava Michael, second in the girls 11-12 50 freestyle (36.01); KJ Freimann, second in the girls 11-12 50 breaststroke (48.53); Jude Hemann, second in the boys 11-12 50 breaststroke (54.06); Caroline Foppe, second in the girls 11-12 100 individual medley (1:30.89); Ryan Schlechte, second in the boys 9-10 25 freestyle (20.38); Abby Chalfant, second in the girls 9-10 25 breaststroke (23.06); Sean McGinley, second in the boys 8 and under 25 breaststroke (23.22);
Addie Embry, second in the girls 8 and under 25 freestyle (22.20); Kyler Koerkenmeier, second in the boys 8 and under 25 freestyle (24.65); Caroline Johnson, second in the girls 10 and under 100 individual medley (1:40.75); Jackie Barkus, third in the girls 10 and under 100 individual medley (1:43.46); Ethan Henke, second in the boys 10 and under 100 individual medley (1:48.96); Noah Range, third in the boys 13-14 100 freestyle (1:15.8); Baylie Wells, third in the girls 9-10 25 breaststroke (23.27); and Mason Morris, third in the boys 9-10 25 breaststroke (33.93).
This story was originally published July 21, 2016 at 11:57 AM with the headline "Highland Splash bite Sharks, cap off undefeated regular season."