By Fred Kroner
Junior Owen Kearns was a two-event individual winner and also helped two relays to victory on Saturday (Dec. 3) as the Mahomet-Seymour boys’ swimming team opened the season with a victory in a three-school meet at Charleston.
Kearns was triumphant in the 100-yard butterfly (57.77 seconds) and the 100-yard backstroke (1:00.91).\
In the 200-yard medley relay, he joined with Matthew Kirby, Emmett Kearns and Aaron Smith for a first-place finish in 2:01.71.
He was also involved with a victory in the 200-yard freestyle relay. He teamed up with Smith, Kirby and Emmett Kearns for the win.
The other Bulldog individual winner was Emmett Kearns in the 500-yard freestyle (5:53.39).
M-S totaled 66 points to outdistance St. Thomas More (47) and Charleston (42).
Posting runner-up finishes were Kameron Bartels in the 200-yard individual medley (3:11.44), Smith in the 100-yard backstroke (1:15.28) and Emmett Kearns in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:16.81) along with the 400-yard freestyle relay foursome of Avery Rosa, Ezekiel Spitzner, Bartels and Ethan Whitttaker (5:12.83).
Bulldog coach Erich O’Donnell liked what he saw in the first meet.
“Overall, I felt the team did really well considering we’ve been in the water just a couple of weeks,” O’Donnell said. “We focused on many of the things we have been working on in practice in our races, and the boys showed marked improvement.
“Great first meet.”
M-S (2-0) returns to action on Saturday (Dec. 10) at Bloomington in a meet that also includes Danville.
super proud of the entire team! Thanks for continuing to cover their efforts and progress.