The EHS Boys’ swim team made a splash Monday afternoon with 23 top-three finishes in the annual Swim for HOPE Invitational.

Edwardsville scored a total of 386 points followed by Glenwood with 371, O’Fallon with 272 points and Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin with 246 points.

The college-format meet featured 18 events that were more difficult than what the team was used to.

“We got to switch things up and swim in a lot of different events that we don’t usually get to swim,” junior Matt Doyle said.

It was challenging but exciting at the same time Doyle said, and boys’ swim coach, Christian Rhoten, agreed that’s good to have a change of pace.

“It’s fun for the kids to be able to swim something other than their normal events in the high school season,” Rhoten told The Intelligencer.

The boys dove right into the meet. Out of their 23 top-three finishes, eight of them won.

EHS won in the 400-yard Medley relay (Porter LeVasseur, McLain Oertle, Logan Mills and Matt Doyle) in 3:50.84, Doyle won the 100-yard back-stroke in 59.14, Noah May in the 200-yard butterfly in 1:58.64 and the 400-yard individual medley in 4:33.06, the 200-yard freestyle relay team (May, Mills, Matthew Mendez and LeVasseur) in 1:33.07, mills in the 100-yard butterfly in 57.48 and LeVasseur in the 50-yard freestyles in 21.99 and 100-yard freestyle in 48.82.

The team picked up the majority of their points in the 50-yard freestyle with a 1-2-3-4-5 finish from the Tigers. LeVasseur placed first followed by Mills with 23.11, Mendez with 23.32, Oertle with 23.77 and Evan Grinter with 23.96.

But the main focus of the event was the Allison Hope Foundation. Allison Cassens was an Edwardsville swimmer who passed away with cancer in 2004.

“The purpose (of the invitational meet) was to raise money and awareness for the Allison Hope Foundation,” Doyle said. “They do amazing work.”