With awesome strength, the Jr. Bills of St. Louis U High swim and dive flattened Francis Howell Central 145-29 in their first meet on Monday. With significant time drops across the board, the team solidified their impressive return into the 2022 season even as greater foes loom in the distance.

Despite the harsh time slot of the meet, which took place at 9 pm at the St. Peters Rec-Plex, the team won every event. 

“They were well-fueled and rested even though it was late at night,” said head coach Lindsey Ehret. “I think they were just looking to have some fun.”

Fun is exactly what they had, both in and out of the pool. The team, shouting at and cheering on each other, was abuzz with energy that came to life in each race. 

“The team was very excited and pumped up,” added senior Brandon Harris. “There was a lot of good energy.

The meet began with SLUH diver junior Nolan Travers, who had the whole crowd’s excitement being the only diver in the meet. He scored a 153.

Then the swim team kicked it off with a soaring 200 medley relay, where the three SLUH teams swept the event in first, second, and third.

Junior Henry Unger picked up the pace with a 22.98 in the 50 free, dropping time from 23.66 earlier in the season. Alongside him, seniors Brendan Schroeder (22.97) and Jason Cabra (22.37) sprinted their hearts out like usual, scoring 22.97 and 22.37.

“Our sprinters are faster now than they were at this point last year,” commented Ehret. 

“It feels great to get a 22.98 at the first meet of the season, but I’m looking to improve on it as we get closer to November,” said Unger.

Shortly after, the butterfly brigade of senior Gavin Baldes, junior Mattie Peretz, and freshman George Albert returned to conquer, all three outpacing Francis Howell Central. Albert narrowed his gap to the one-minute mark, touching in at 1:02. 

“I feel like I had a pretty good swim,” said Baldes, who came in at 56.25. “I took it out faster than I have been and kept my stroke together throughout the second 50.”

Immediately after, however, sprinter Schroeder captured the crowd’s attention for one of the night’s biggest moments. On fire from the 50 yard freestyle, he dived back into the 100 freestyle to score a personal best, 49.81 seconds. 

“That was actually a really big success. I’m excited that my hard work is paying off and it’s paying off for the team,” said Schroeder.

After solidifying his recent transition to being a sprinter this year, Schroeder has high aspirations for the coming months.

“I hope it’ll lead me to at least finaling in state in the top 8,” explained Schroeder. “That’s the goal for me.”

“Brendan Schroeder has shown up,” added Ehret. “He took his training over the summer seriously, and is in really good shape.”

Another highlight of the night was SLUH’s long-distance swimmers, more commonly known as the “Distance Dudes.” In what is often the longest event in swim meets, the 500 freestyle, sophomore Jaden Yarbrough, sophomore Greyson Mueller, and freshman Connor Dunker all earned shockingly good times under 5:10.

“I felt really good and I did really well, but I’m super excited about the upcoming season because all of the distance dudes, we all have the same mindset and we’re in sync,” described Mueller. “(Jaden and I) were pretty much neck-and-neck the entire 500. It’s always fun to race against him and he barely out touched me.”

Finally, the meet closed out with a winning 400 freestyle relay, with fierce but productive competition between SLUH’s A and B relay teams.

Despite these early successes, swimmers and coaches alike know that there is still work to be done and tougher battles to be fought.

“I think there’s room for improvement for everybody,” mused Harris.

The Jr. Bills are set to face off against Parkway Central on Wednesday, and will take to the roads next Saturday for the Cape Rock Invite in Cape Girardeau. As they slink back into the rhythm of daily practices and early morning workouts, the team is ready to take on the challenge.

“We need to hammer it a little bit this week,” said Ehret. “It’s rehearsal. Anytime we sprint, we are sprinting like we want to race.”