Ladue Horton Watkins High School

The Ladue Rams Boys Swimming and Diving Team hit the road for the Splash for Cancer Invite at Lindbergh on Saturday, September 26th. This large meet featured 11 teams with nearly 200 swimmers and divers, including the Rams, and along with the Ladue Invite is considered the fastest pre-Conference local meet of the entire season. With several Rams stepping up their swimming and diving game to new heights, recording personal bests, the Rams finished in 3rd place with 335 points. The defending champion Kirkwood Pioneers won the meet handily, scoring 587 points. Eureka was 2nd at 388 points, and host Lindbergh a distant 4th with 265 points – a 70-point gap from the Rams! The Rams started the meet with a big win in 1M diving by JR Luther Ciorba, scoring 390.05 points for his 11 dives, by far a personal best. Luther is now 3rd on the all-time Ladue Top 16 list, just behind his older brother and former Ram diver David Ciorba who had 399.40 points at the State meet in 2022. SO Caleb Strayhorn made the podium with a 7th in diving as well with 216.10, another personal best. Then, in the first swimming event, the Rams laid down a marker by taking 3rd in the 200 medley relay with a year-best time. The relay consisted of JR co-captain Kevin Wu, FR Kelson Cui, JR Dravya Pradhan, and SR co-captain Arlo Ziolkowski. Continuing the podium (1st-8th) finishes, SO Kevin He then grabbed 8th in the 200 free, Pradhan was 3rd in the 200 IM, and Wu took 2nd in the 50 free with Ziolkowski 6th. After the break, the 100 fly was next and two Rams hit the podium – Pradhan in 3rd and JR Eliot Levine in 8th. Then, in another double podium, Ziolkowski and He went 7th and 8th in the 100 free. After that, the 200 free relay of Cui, Levine, SO Max Bending and He snagged 3rd place. In the 100 back, the closest race of the entire meet, the Rams found their second winner of the day when Wu went 55.34 in the 100 back to touch out Archie Bernsen of Kirkwood by 0.02 seconds! Next, in the 100 breast, Cui took 7th. In the final event, the 400 free relay, the Rams squad of Ziolkowski, Pradhan, He and Wu finished a strong 2nd. Overall, an excellent showing by the Rams to make the podium in all but one of the 12 events, along with two gold medalists! Several Rams also scored individual event points in the meet, which like State scores down to 16th place. They are SR Sam Etherington (12th 200 IM, 10th 100 back), SO Jinghuan Xu (16th 200 IM, 12th 100 breast), Levine (14th 50 free), Bending (15th 50 free), FR Reed Sehy (16th 100 back), and SR co-captain Frank Tian (15th 100 breast) A nice display of depth by the Rams! In the relays, all three B teams did very well, scoring 34 team points. The medley of Etherington, Xu, Levine and Bending took 10th, as did the 200 free of Sehy, FR Ray Blum, SR Carson Crane, and SO Alvin He, while the 400 free of He, Blum, Sehy, and Etherington took 13th. Even more satisfying, the Rams improved on several State cuts. Specifically, He in the 200 and 100 free (1:57.99, 52.68), Pradhan in the 200 IM and 100 fly (2:01.81, 54.34), Levine in the 50 free and 100 fly (23.88, 58.40), Bending in the 50 free (23.89), and Wu in the 50 free and 100 back (23.01, 55.34). Better yet, all three relays lowered their times: the 200 medley (1:41.77), the 200 free (1:35.53) and the 400 free (3:25.87). All three Rams relays are in the top 12 of the Class 1 State list. The Rams begin the final third of the regular season by hitting the road to Lafayette on Thursday, October 1st for a tri-meet with the Lancers and the absolute powerhouse Chaminade Red Devils, who are ranked #1 in the state for Class 2. Then, on Tuesday October 6th the Rams host a non-conference tri-meet with the Pattonville Pirates and the Ft. Zumwalt East Lions. See the Ladue Activities website for details. GO RAMS!