Ladue Horton Watkins High School

The Ladue Rams Boys Swimming & Diving Team hosted a non-conference tri-meet on Tuesday, October 13th with the 4-time defending Class 1 state champion Parkway Central Colts and the DeSmet Spartans. The Rams battled the champions in every event and performed extremely well but the Colts showed their strength and the Rams ended up taking 2nd place overall by a score of 145-122-60. Compared to last year’s result of 146-118-63, the Rams narrowed the margin from 26 to 23 points, quite an improvement when you consider the Rams were missing two key divers this year! The Rams started off with a bang, winning the first event and held tough, with a slim 3-point lead through four events. After that, the Colts grabbed the lead by six points and slowly pulled away, with the Rams hanging tough. As it happened, the Colts took 21 of their 23 winning margin points in just two events, which means the Rams swam the champs to a nearly even meet in the other 10 events. Quite a performance by the Rams! The split takes the Rams to a very consistent 3-2-0 (1st-2nd-3rd) in tri-meets, while still holding a league-leading 5-0 record in the Red Conference. Compared to last year when the Rams had three event winners, this year they had four: SO Dravya Pradhan (200 IM, 100 fly), SR co-captain Arlo Ziolkowski (50 free) and SO Kevin Wu (100 back), good for 28 points in the tri-meet scoring format. Central won the remaining eight events. The Rams scoring in 2nd-6th places included JR Kevin He (4th 200 free, 3rd 100 free), SO Alvin He (6th 200 free), FR Kelson Cui (2nd 200 IM), SO Caleb Strayhorn (4th 1M diving), JR Eliot Levine (3rd 100 fly), FR Teddy Levine (5th 500 free), SR Carson Crane (6th 500 free), SR Sam Etherington (4th 100 back), and SO Jinghuan Xu (5th 100 breast). The Rams A 200 medley relay of Wu, Cui, Pradhan, and Ziolkowski won in a fabulous come- from-behind race. Both free relays took 2nd: the 200 of Cui, Levine, Kevin He and SO Max Bending, and the 400 of Ziolkowski, Pradhan, Kevin He and Wu. The B relays did their part as well – the 200 medley of Etherington, Xu, Levine and Bending took 4th, the 200 free of Xu, Alvin He, FR Reed Sehy and FR Ray Blum took 5th, and the 400 of Levine, Blum, Alvin He and Bending took a nice 3rd. The Rams enter the stretch run with the final two regular season meets by going down Clayton Road to their non-conference rival, the John Burroughs Bombers on Thursday, October 15th and then finish the slate by hosting the Affton Cougars and Lutheran Veritas St. Charles for a non- conference tri-meet on Tuesday, October 20th, which is also Senior Night. After that, the Red Conference meet is on tap at Clayton on Tuesday and Wednesday, October 27th and 28th. The Rams will be defending their conference crown at that meet. See the Ladue Activities website for details. GO RAMS!