WaterWorks Novice Meet features area swim teams, introduces youth to competition

Brent Feeney, Sports Writer

Jun 18, 2018 1:47 PM Jun 18, 2018 1:59 PM

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EDWARDSVILLE – Even the world’s best swimmers had to get their start somewhere.

For the first-year swimmers in the Southwestern Illinois Swimming Association’s member clubs – Summers Port, Paddlers, WaterWorks, Sunset Hills and Splash City – their chance to experience meet conditions came Saturday morning as the league held its’ Novice Meet at WaterWorkds Swim Club.

No team scores were kept, but the meet did give a chance for the new swimmers to experience what they will be going through during the league’s dual-competition meets and league championships as the season goes on and also gave the coaches the opportunity to see how their newcomers have progressed since practice got under way and what they need to work on in the various strokes.

“I think they did really well today,” Summers Port assistant coach Jennifer Roth said of her new Sharks. “We saw a lot of good things, we saw some things we really have to work on, but this is the meet where they really learn a lot of things that they’re doing wrong and things they’re doing really well too; this is a good learning-tool meet for those first-year swimmers.

“It gets their nerves out; some of them were very nervous and with our first meet getting canceled (the Sharks’ scheduled Thursday night opener against WaterWorks was postponed due to storms in the Godfrey area right before the meet was scheduled to begin), it was nice to see them really get this experience, it being a less intense meet for them.”

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The Sharks did have some surprise performances from their rookies. “The most important this is that we found some things we really need to work on,” Roth said.

Roth cited swimmers such as Emma Baggio, Luke Norton and Luana Schwank standouts on the day for Summers Port. “I had some really great surprises” from the three swimmers, Roth said.

“I think it went really, really well,” said Marlins coach Spencer Sholl. “It’s a really good meet for a lot of our younger kids to get in for the first time and get used to racing; I think our kids did really, really well. A lot of them got in and had really good races and had a good time – that’s what made the meet for me.”

Sholl cited Greyson Zimmer, Caiden Calvin, Vivian Lu and Juliana Eastman as standouts on the day for WaterWorks. “We put them in races to get an idea of how they’re swimming and they all seemed to do well,” Sholl said. “I’m disappointed we missed our meet on Thursday, but this is a good meet for me to see how the rookies do and be better prepared.

“I’m pretty happy with today’s meet; it went really well and I’m looking forward to seeing how the rest of the rookies to this season.”

WaterWorks takes on Splash City of Collinsville at 6 p.m. Thursday at home, while Summers Port visits Sunset Hills, also at 6 p.m. Thursday; the Marlins-Sharks meet that had been set on Thursday before the rainout was rescheduled for July 10 at Summers Port. Following this coming Thursday’s meets, the SWISA Relays will take place at 6 p.m. June 25 at Sunset Hills in Edwardsville.