Ladue Horton Watkins High School

The Ladue Rams Boys Swimming & Diving Team celebrated Senior Night and hosted their final home meet of the season, a non-conference tri-meet with a pair of Cougars – Affton and Lutheran Veritas - on Tuesday, October 20th. Despite missing all three divers, the Rams competed extremely well in every event, using a unique team program with seniors getting their choice of events, and blazed to 158 points to handily win the meet, in front of Lutheran with 78 and Affton at 55. The outcome gives the Rams a regular-season complete record of 4-2- 0 (first-second-third) in tri-meets, with a Red Conference 5-0 record and 4-2 overall in dual meets to date. The Rams showed their versatility and utilized their formidable team depth at the meet. The Rams won seven individual events for 49 team points, led by double event-winner and SO Dravya Pradhan (100 free, 100 breast) along with solo winners JR co-captain Kevin Wu (200 IM), FR Reed Sehy (200 free), JR Eliot Levine (100 fly), SO Jinghuan Xu (500 free) and SR co-captain Arlo Ziolkowski (100 back). Notably, the Rams won all three relays as well, a huge factor in winning the meet, scoring another 42 team points in the process. The Rams then tacked on 67 team depth points to complete the dominant win. The individual Rams who scored in 2nd-6th places using tri-meet scoring included SO Alvin He (2nd 200 free), JR Kevin He (2nd 200 IM), FR Ray Blum (2nd 50 free), SR Carson Crane (5th 50 free), SO Max Bending (2nd 100 free), FR Teddy Levine (2nd 500 free), and FR Kelson Cui (2nd 100 back). As mentioned, all three Rams relays won – the 200 medley of Wu, Cui, Pradhan and Bending; the 200 of Levine, Alvin He, Blum, and Bending; and the 400 free of Wu, Kevin He, Levine, and Pradhan. The Rams all-senior medley relay took 3rd – Ziolkowski, Frank Tian, Oscar Yanuck and Crane. In the 400 free relay, the Rams grabbed 3rd with Bending, Blum, Alvin He and FR Simon Shen, and the 200 free relay of Wu, SO Alan Wang, Sehy, and Kevin He took 2nd. A great showing by the Rams relays! The Rams posted three more State cuts – Wu in the 200 IM (2:09.89), Ziolkowski in the 100 fly (1:00.19), and Pradhan in the 100 breast (1:08.40). The Rams now have eight individuals with 24 total cuts and all three relays qualified on the State list. The Rams head to the Red Conference Championships at Clayton on Tuesday, October 27th for the swim prelims, and Wednesday the 28th for diving and swim finals. After that, it’s the State Championship on November 13-14. See the Ladue Activities website for details. GO RAMS!