Chester Stingrays finish season with PRs
<p dir="ltr"><span>The 2016 conference swim season has come to a close, as the Chester Stingrays competed in the Shawnee Conference championship meet on July 30 in Red Bud.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Carlyle won the meet with 413.5 points, with Pinckneyville taking second with 248 points. Millstadt rounded out the top three with 218 points.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>The Stingrays weren't able to bring home many team points due to the team's small size and finished sixth overall, but two individuals and a relay team walked away as conference champions.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Several others set personal records.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>"It went spectacular," said Chester co-coach Elizabeth Heffernan. "I couldn't have asked for anything better. A lot of kids broke a lot of personal records, which is what we look for as we have a small team."</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Heffernan's younger brothers, Nathan and Jack, both earned conference championships in the age 11-12 50-yard breaststroke (39.78) and age 9-10 100-yard medley relay (1:24.81), respectively.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>"Nathan Heffernan was the only one ranked first in his event," Coach Heffernan said. "He was actually undefeated all year in the breaststroke."</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Aden Runge, Cohen Gibbs and Lucas Thompson were also part of the conference champion medley relay.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>"They were ranked second by one second for seed times at conference," Coach Heffernan said. "We've been watching that relay improve all year and was something we've had our eye on as we got closer to conference."</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Eli Hughes also won his event, the age 13-14 100-yard freestyle, with a time of 1:07.16.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>"It was a great day full of PRs and I couldn't be more proud of how far each of them have come," said co-coach Sarah Bindel in a Facebook message to the Herald Tribune. "'No pool, still cool!'"</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Coach Heffernan also mentioned Brooklyn Gibbs and Grace Welborn as other swimmers who set new personal records.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>"It seems like every meet they always come up to me telling me new records they've set," Heffernan said.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Heffernan was asked to summarize the season as a whole.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>"I couldn't have asked for anything better," she said. "We saw personal records by people in every meet.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>"I couldn't be more pleased with the season we had."</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Other top results for Chester were the girls 13-14 200-yard medley relay (Avery Runge, Adeline Blechle, Josie Kattenbraker and Lauren Soellner), which finished second; Jordan Hughes in the boys 13-14 100-yard backstroke (second, 1:26.03); Avery Runge in the girls 13-14 100-yard backstroke (second, 1:23.62); the boys 9-10 100-yard freestyle team of Lucas Thompson, Aden Runge, Jack Heffernan and Cohen Gibbs (second, 1:11.32) and the girls 15-18 200-yard freestyle team of Claire Deterding, Ellen Blechle, Elizabeth Heffernan and Jessica Kattenbraker (second, 2:09.06.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Next up for Shawnee Conference participants is the All-Star swim meet at Millstadt on Saturday.</span>