First-year Sunset Hills coach OKeefe is encouraged by his teams steady improvement

By SCOTT MARION, smarion@edwpub.net

Caroline Byron of Sunset Hills competes in the mixed 15-16 200-yard medley relay during Wednesdays dual meet against Paddlers of Granite City.

Caroline Byron of Sunset Hills competes in the mixed 15-16 200-yard medley relay during Wednesdays dual meet against Paddlers of Granite City.

Riley Steinkuhler of Sunset Hills competes in the 9-10 boys division during the diving portion of the meet.

Riley Steinkuhler of Sunset Hills competes in the 9-10 boys division during the diving portion of the meet.

SWIMMING: Stingrays show progress in loss to Paddlers

Victories are still hard to come by for the Sunset Hills swim team, but it continues to show signs of progress.

On Wednesday, the host Stingrays dropped to 0-2 in SWISA with a 423-265 loss to Paddlers of Granite City, but first-year Sunset Hills coach Dan OKeefe felt his team accomplished most of its goals.

I dont care so much about times, but I thought we raced very well. We finished and we raced hard to the wall, OKeefe said. It was a close meet for much of the way, but there some races where they had three or four kids and we didnt have any, which means we didnt get any points in those races. When we did get compete against them, I was pretty happy about how we did.

The girls team standings were fairly close, with Paddlers beating Sunset Hills 191-152. The Paddlers boys won by a considerable margin, outscoring the Stingrays 232-113.

Paddlers, which lost by two points to Splash City of Collinsville in its opening meet, improved to 1-1.

Despite the loss, OKeefe is encouraged by the potential of the Stingrays younger age groups, especially the 8-and-under girls.

We were talking tonight about moving one of those girls up in one of our next relays because were not very deep in terms of bodies for relays, OKeefe said. Were missing a few kids in the other age groups, including one of our top 9-10 boys. Thats kind of the nature of summer swimming, but we hope to build up an atmosphere and a competitive spirit of team unity. We want that to carry over and get them excited to do stuff more long-term.

Four Stingrays swimmers Gabby Cook (7-8 girls) Rachel Johnson (9-10 girls), Caroline Byron (13-14 girls) and Josie ODay (13-14 girls) each won three individual events.

The coaches are really great and they help us a lot and cheer us on, Byron said. Dan gives us lots of help at practice and one-on-one time to work on our strokes.

We definitely can improve a lot and weve already gotten the highest places weve had. I know we havent won in a while, but weve been doing a lot better this year.

Two-time winners for Sunset Hills included Emma Nativi (6-and-under girls), Savannah Turley (9-10 girls), Owen Gruben (11-12 boys), Madelyn Milburn (11-12 girls), Thomas Hyten (13-14 boys), Henry Gruben (15-18 boys) and Lydia Hemings (15-18 girls).

Other individual winners for the Stingrays were Mac Dacus (6-and-under boys) Grace Cook (7-8 girls), Riley Steinkuhler (9-10 boys), Andrew Byron (11-12 boys), Andrew Billhartz (15-18 boys).

Mitchell Steinhkuhler (13-14 boys) didnt win a first-place medal for Sunset Hills, but hes also excited about the Stingrays potential.

Every day we come to practice and work hard and weve really been improving on specific strokes, breaststroke in particular, Steinkuhler said. We only have four guys (in 13-14 boys), so we barely make a relay, but weve been dropping seconds off our time in every race.

As far as goals for myself, instead of second and third every time, Id like to win a few races. Team-wise, wed also like to get a couple wins in our relays.

As a new coach, OKeefe is still learning about his swimmers and their capabilities.

I lean on (assistant coaches) Drew May and Kate May a lot for their knowledge of what these kids can do, OKeefe said. Im encouraged every day by what I see them do in practice.

Relay winners on the girls side for Sunset Hills included the 7-8 100-yard medley relay, the 13-14 200-yard medley relay, the 7-8 100-yard freestyle relay and the 15-18 200-yard freestyle relay.

On the boys side, relay winners for the Stingrays were the 7-8 100-yard medley relay, the 13-14 200-yard medley relay, the 7-8 100-yard freestyle relay and the 15-18 200-yard freestyle relay.

Sunset Hills also won the 7-8 mixed 100-yard medley relay, the 7-8 mixed 100-yard freestyle relay and the 15-18 mixed 200-yard freestyle relay.

The Sunset Hills divers also lost to Paddlers on Wednesday, but Stingrays coach Gayle Lindsay felt her team performed well considering it was outnumbered.

We dont have as many divers as last year, but the ones who did come out have worked really hard and I see a big improvement from the beginning of the year, Lindsay said. Theyre starting to do more degree of difficulty dives, which Im happy with.

Sunset Hills doesnt swim again until it hosts Splash City on July 6. The meet will start at 6 p.m.

Weve got a few things that we want to work on in particular and the break will be nice, OKeefe said. Weve had three meets in six days (including the SWISA Relay Meet on Monday), so well get a little bit of rest and work on a few finer points.

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SWIMMING: Stingrays show progress in loss to Paddlers - The Edwardsville Intelligencer