Swim Team Defeats Burroughs for 2nd Time in School History

The Westminster Boys’ Swim and Dive Team defeated John Burroughs School 102-82.  The upset was just the second time in history that Westminster has beaten Burroughs in the pool. Individual first place finishers were Reid St. John in the 100 Fly, Caleb Terschak in the 100 Back, and Daniel Fox in the 500 Free. The 400 Free Relay of Reed Grimm, Reid St. John, Jesse Parham, and Caleb Terschak. After the meet, Coach Kent Kehr said that he thought the turning point of the meet was Daniel Fox’s first place finish in the 500 Free.

“When Daniel took first in the 500, I just kind of knew,” said Coach Kehr in the post-meet team meeting.

Before the 500, the eighth of the twelve-event meet, the Cats were barely holding on. They had a slight lead at that point, but only because Chris Kirby had taken first in the diving portion of the meet. After Fox’s victory, which he took with fourteen seconds to spare, the Cats took both the 100 Back, the next event, and the 400 Free Relay, the final event and cruised to a 20-point win. Caleb Terschak’s 100 Back time of 1.00.77 was the 20th-fastest time in the state this season. However, he’ll need a time of 57.79 if he wants to qualify for the State Meet in October.

Because Coach Kehr’s wife is the Burroughs Swim Coach, Coach Kehr had agreed to jump in the pool if the team took the victory. Coach Kehr stayed true to his word, and the whole team went swimming.

Midway through their season, and in the seventh week of swimming, the Cats are 3-5 with a second place finish.

“This is by far the best team Westminster has had in years. Everyone does their part and works hard,” said Jak Patterson, Senior.

They jumped right into their season, with meets against Holt and Rockwood Summit, splitting these meets and going 1-1. They competed at the Ladue Invitational Meet where they saw great competition against the likes of SLUH and CBC. They were then beat in a meet at Ladue and took second in a tri-meet against at Ritenour. They swam against Oakville and Timberland at home and took first place easily. A loss to Chaminade wasn’t much of a surprise, and they almost pulled off an upset against De Smet Thursday, but weren’t able to get the job done.
“We’re hoping to start hitting our stride,” said Justin Fuller, Sophomore.

Lead swimmers at this point are Juniors Caleb Terschak,Reid St. John, Seniors Jak Patterson, Connor Evans, and Jesse Parham, and Freshmen Reed Grimm and Sam Parker Stillman.
Senior Chris Kirby is undefeated in diving so far, and hopes to continue his success on the springboard.