SWIMMING: Du Quoin caps off season with SISL championship

Nine days after capping off an unbeaten season in team competition, the Du Quoin Swimming Indians returned to Salem this past Saturday with another goal in mind - winning the Southern Illinois Swim League's conference championship meet.

Setting thirteen team records in the process, Du Quoin finished comfortably ahead of second-place Herrin and the five other SISL teams to bring home the title, and three Swimming Indians brought home High-Point honors for their respective age groups - Mikah Montgomery (girls 7-8), Mikaela Montgomery (girls 15-18) and Paxton Higgerson (boys 13-14). Nine other Du Quoin swimmers finished in the top three in individual rankings.

Topping the list of record-setting races for the Indians was the girls 15-18 200-meter freestyle relay team, which brought home first place with a new SISL record time of 1:57.03. The foursome of Olivia Cravens, Quinn Kirkpatrick, Haley Kuhnert and Mikaela Montgomery also won their 200m medley relay.

Members of that relay group were also responsible for six other Du Quoin records broken or bettered on Saturday.

Olivia Cravens, who placed third overall amongst girls 13-14, improved records she already held for Du Quoin in the 100m freestyle (1:03.38) and 50m butterfly (32.26), finishing second in both races. She also brought home a first in the 100m individual medley.

En route to her High-Point honors, Mikaela Montgomery won three solo races and set new team-bests in all of them - 100m freestyle (1:02.43), 100m backstroke (1:12.31) and 100m IM (1:11.62).

Haley Kuhnert also set a new Indians record at the conference meet, finishing second in the 100m breaststroke and improving her old mark to 1:23.84.

The girls' 11-12 medley relay team - Amelia McLain, Lauren Cravens, Madilyn McLain and Elizabeth Bird - won with a new Du Quoin record at a time of 2:27.69. The same group won the freestyle relay as well.

Five boys records fell at Salem, too, led by Henry Harsy's time of 18.27 in the boys 7-8 25m freestyle that broke a team record that had stood for 21 years (Ryan Bock, 1993, 18.31).

Henry Harsy was also part of the boys 7-8 100m freestyle relay team along with A.J. Keith, Cooper Rice and Maddax Thompson which improved their team record to 1:24.48, good for first place at the SISL championships.

Jerry Kuhnert, third overall among boys 15-18, set Swimming Indians records in the 100m breaststroke (1:10.75) and 50m butterfly (28.59), both victories.

Paxton Higgerson went three-for-three to win the High-Point award for boys 13-14, and improved his own record in the 50m butterfly to 29.93. He also won the 50m breaststroke and 100m IM.

Other swimmers who won for Du Quoin on Saturday included Mikah Montgomery (girls 7-8: 50m freestyle, 25m breaststroke, 1st overall points), Emma Fischer (girls 9-10 25m freestyle), Lauren Heape (girls 9-10: 50m freestyle, 2nd overall points), Lindsay Gossman (girls 9-10: 25m butterfly, 3rd overall points), Madilyn McLain (girls 11-12: 50m freestyle, 3rd overall points), Amelia McLain (girls 11-12: 100m freestyle, 50m backstroke, 2nd overall points), Quinn Kirkpatrick (girls 15-18: 50m freestyle, 50m butterfly, 2nd overall points), and Maddax Thompson (boys 7-8: 25m breaststroke, 3rd overall points).

Rylan Ragar didn't win an individual race, but came in third overall in the boys 13-14 age group with his three second-place finishes at Salem.

The girls 9-10 relay team of Lindsey Gossman, Trinity Morgan, Emma Fischer and Lauren Heape won both the freestyle and medley relay races, and Du Quoin's girls 7-8 relay team of Kallie Oestreicher, Ellee Green, Rylie Day and Mikah Montgomery brought home first in the freestyle.

All of Du Quoin's top-ten finishers in individual events appear in the list on today's scoreboard page of the Du Quoin Evening Call.

The Swimming Indians will hold their annual awards banquet at 7:00 p.m. on Monday night at the First Baptist Church Life Center in Du Quoin.