Ladue Horton Watkins High School

The Ladue Rams Boys Swimming and Diving Team hosted their conference foe, the Class 2 Lindbergh Flyers, in a dual meet on Tuesday, September 22nd. The Rams strongly defended their home pool, winning the first six events to take a 58-36 lead, and maintained the pace to win handily, 111-75. With the win, the Rams move to 3-0 in the Suburban Red conference and remain 2-0-0 (1st-2nd-3rd) in tri-meets and 2-2 in dual meets overall. The Rams won 7 of the 9 individual events, scoring 42 points with the Rams relays and team depth providing the remaining 69 points. The Rams event winners were double winners SO Dravya Pradhan (200 free, 100 fly), JR co-captain Kevin Wu (50 free, 100 back), and FR Kelson Cui (200 IM, 100 breast) along with single winner JR Luther Ciorba (1M diving). Individual Rams who scored in 2nd-5th places included SO Alvin He (5th 200 free, 4th 500 free), SO Jinghuan Xu (2nd 200 IM, 2nd 100 breast), SR Sam Etherington (4th 200 IM, 2nd 100 back), SR co- captain Arlo Ziolkowski (3rd 50 free, 2nd 100 free), JR Brighton Westermayer (2nd 1M diving), FR Caleb Strayhorn (3rd 1M diving), FR Ray Blum (5th 100 fly), JR Eliot Levine (3rd 100 free), JR Kevin He (4th 100 free), FR Teddy Levine (5th 500 free), and SR co-captain Frank Tian (5th 100 breast). Unlike two years ago when the Flyers won all three A relays, this year the Rams returned the favor and swept those relays. They were the medley of Wu, Cui, Levine, and Kevin He, the 200 free of Ziolkowski, Pradhan, SO Max Bending and Kevin He, and the 400 free of Ziolkowski, Pradhan, Kevin He and Wu. The Rams B relays all took 3rd: the medley of Etherington, Xu, Blum and Bending, the 200 free of Levine, FR Reed Sehy, Blum, and Alvin He, and the 400 free of Levine, Bending, Alvin He and Cui. The Rams lowered their 200 free relay State cut, down to 1:36.58. The Rams now have all three relays in the top ten of State Class 1. They remain with seven individuals covering 13 State cuts. More Rams will surely acquire or lower their times as the season progresses towards the Conference meet over the next four weeks. The Rams continue their second-half season competition with the large Splash for Cancer Invitational at Lindbergh on Saturday September 26th, followed by a non-conference home meet with the Vianney Griffins on Tuesday, September 29th. See the Ladue Activities website for details. GO RAMS!