SWIMMING: Indians sink Herrin, 396-316

For the second time this season, the Swimming Indians took down the Herrin Tigersharks, this time doing it in their home pool at Du Quoin by the score of 396-316 on Tuesday night in a non-league meet.
It was a meet of historic significance for boys 13-14 swimmer Paxton Higgerson, who kept his season-long winning streak going and broke a 26-year old Southern Illinois Swim League record in the 100 meter individual medley. Higgerson's time of 1:06.83 was one-thousandth of a second better than Mt. Vernon's Larry Jukes back in 1989. Higgerson also improved his team record in the butterfly, and added a third win on the night in the breaststroke.
Both girls 11-12 relay teams also set team records. The same foursome of Makoa Montgomery, Lauren Heape, Lindsey Gossman and Meesha Montgomery broke the 2013 record in the freestyle relay with a time of 2:10.31, and the 2014 record in the medley with a mark of 2:27.03.
In addition to Higgerson's big night, five other Indians also swam their way to three individual wins - Adalyn Darnell (girls 9-10; breaststroke, butterfly, IM), Meesha Montgomery (girls 11-12; 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle, IM), Olivia Cravens (girls 13-14; 50m freestyle, breaststroke, IM), Quinn Kirkpatrick (girls 15-18; 50m freestyle, backstroke, butterfly) and Maddax Thompson (boys 7-8; 50m freestyle, breaststroke, butterfly).
Other Du Quoin swimmers posting wins on Tuesday included Kelby Funk (girls 6 & under; freestyle, backstroke), Mikah Montgomery (girls 7-8; 50m freestyle, breaststroke), Kallie Oestreicher (girls 7-8; backstroke), Makoa Montgomery (girls 11-12; backstroke, butterfly), Lauren Heape (girls 11-12; breaststroke), Maci Montgomery (girls 15-18; 100m freestyle), Haley Kuhnert (girls 15-18; breaststroke, IM), A.J. Keith (boys 7-8; 25m freestyle, backstroke), Henry Harsy (boys 9-10; 25m freestyle), Malik Jones (boys 9-10; backstroke), Jackson Halstead (boys 9-10; breaststroke), Rylan Ragar (boys 15-18; backstroke) and Caleb Gomes (boys 15-18; breaststroke, IM).
The Swimming Indians were victorious in eleven relay events on the evening.
All of Du Quoin's top-four finishers in each event appear in list format on the scoreboard page of today's newspaper.
The Indians have one regular season meet remaining - Thursday night at Marion - before the SISL Championships in Du Quoin on July 25.