SPRINGFIELD – The Alton and Edwardsville boys swimming teams each enjoyed a nice ride back home from Springfield on Saturday.
The Tigers and Redbirds turned in successful showings at the Springfield Sectional at Eisenhower Pool. Edwardsville won its first sectional title in program history after placing first out of 7 teams with 206 points in the sectional meet, while Alton qualified for state in seven events and captured sectional titles in four of them.
After finishing second at sectionals in each of the last three years, the Tigers clinched their first sectional crown by outscoring second-place Glenwood 46-35 in the final three events. Glenwood finished with 195 points.
Edwardsville also had a state qualifier after not getting any swimmers out of sectionals last year. Porter LeVasseur will represent the Tigers at the state meet in Evanston next week after finishing fifth with a state-qualifying time of 52.84 seconds in the 100-yard backstroke.
Alton will send a quartet of swimmers to state. They are seniors Matt Daniel and Cole Akal, junior Caden Akal and sophomore Noah Clancy.
All four of them helped the 200-yard medley and 200-yard freestyle relay teams pick up victories. Daniel also qualified in the 200-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly after placing second in both of them. Caden Akal finished first in the 50-yard freestyle and second in the 100-yard freestyle, advancing to state in both events. Clancy won a sectional crown in the 100-yard backstroke for the second year in a row.
Also on Saturday, the Granite City Warriors earned a medal in the 400-yard medley relay. The squad of Dawson James, Matt Wilson, Bennett Smallie and Noah Cain placed fifth with a 3:52.45.
The Redbirds and Warriors were ineligible in the team scoring since they don't swim all year around.
Luke Daniel and Jake Roth of Marquette Catholic, Metro East Lutheran's Clayton Clemmer and Father McGivney's Will Hyten also competed at sectionals, but didn't place.
Edwardsville didn't get any first-place finishes, but scored points in all 12 events. The Tigers placed second in the 200-yard medley and freestyle relays and fourth in the 400-yard freestyle relay. McLain Oertle picked up a pair of third-place finishes in the 100-yard breaststroke and the 200-yard intermediate medley and Owen Kaufmann placed third in the diving competition.
Also for the Tigers, Matt Doyle finished fifth in the 500-yard freestyle and sixth in the 200-yard freestyle, Noah May came in fourth in the 200-yard intermediate medley, Logan Mills was sixth in the 100-yard butterfly and Mark Schoolman finished fifth in the diving competition.
LeVasseur surpassed the state-qualifying mark of 53.32 in the 100 breaststroke to advance to state for the first time. He also placed fourth in the 50-yard freestyle and competed in both 200 yard freestyle and medley relay teams.
The 200-yard medley relay team of LeVasseur, Oertle, May and Mills finished second with a 1:40.87, the 200-yard freestyle relay team of Mills, LeVasseur, Oertle and Matt Mendez placed second with a 1:30.05 and the 400-yard medley relay team of May, Mendez, Doyle and Noah Range came in fourth with a 3:37.53.
The Tigers are enjoying a strong season that included eight dual wins and championships in the Iron Invite, the Swim For Hope Invitational and the Southern Illinois High School Championships. Now, they're looking to end their season with their first all-state medalist since 2014, when Patrick Hesse placed fifth in the 100 breaststroke.
The top six finishers in each event earn medals. The winner of each event plus swimmers who surpassed a state-qualifying mark advance to state.
The swimming competition began with Alton winning the 200-yard medley relay in 1:36.97. A year ago, the Redbirds finished second in that event.
Alton placed first in the 200-yard freestyle relay in 1:27.31.
Clancy and Daniel will be making their first state appearances, while the Akal brothers will compete at state for the first time.
Clancy will compete at state for the second straight year. He was the Redbirds' lone state representative a year ago.
Clancy finished in 50.78 seconds in the 100 backstroke. He also came in second in the 100 breaststroke in 1:00.41.
Daniel, who didn't compete in last year's sectionals because of a shoulder injury, will be making his second trip to state. He competed in the 500-yard freestyle when he was a freshman.
Daniel swam a 1:43.29 in the 200 freestyle and 51.41 seconds in the 100 butterfly.
Caden Akal finished in 21.61 seconds in the 50 freestyle, beating Gibault's Max Kostelac by five-hundreths of a second. He swam 47.68 seconds in the 100 freestyle.
Cole Akal earned a medal in the 50-yard freestyle after finishing fifth in 22.01 seconds.
The state meet will start on Friday at Evanston High School. Swimming preliminaries begin at 3:30 p.m.