O'FALLON, Ill. • One streak is over, but Kim Eddy hopes another streak has begun.
Eddy is head coach of the O'Fallon Breakers, who ended Kings Point's six-year championship reign Saturday at the Midwest Swim Conference Meet. The host Breakers edged Hilltoppers of Dupo by 60 points (1,830.5 to 1,770.5) while Kings Point (1,592) placed third.
Rounding out the team standings were Highland (1,369), St. Clair Country Club (1,262.5), Freeburg (1,142.5), Scott Air Force Base (685.5), Dorchester (577) and Westhaven (550.5).
It was the first conference title for O'Fallon since 2004, the year before Kings Point started its streak.
"By swim meet standards, 60 points is very close because a first-place relay is worth 40," Eddy said. "When we were ahead right after freestyle was posted, I thought there was a chance we could do it. If we could make it through IMs, which is our weakest lineup, there was a real good chance that we were going to do it.
"Coming into the meet, I thought we were going to be about 100 points behind Hilltoppers. A lot of kids that weren't supposed to score points stepped up and did score for us."
The Breakers had five high point swimmers: Alyssa Thoman (second in 8-and-under girls), Evan Potter (third in 8-and-under boys), Natalie Edwards (first in 11-12 girls), Max Gibbs (second in 11-12 boys) and Angela Newlon (first in 15-18 girls).
For Edwards, it was a welcome return to high point honors. She earned a trophy two years but fell short last season.
"A lot of kids have really improved because they got motivated to win this year," Edwards said. "It disappointed me last year that I didn't get high point, so I'm really happy I won it this year. My butterfly and breaststroke have improved and that made a big difference for me."
Gibbs, meanwhile, faced the challenge of moving up an age group while still retaining his high point status.
"I just wanted to go out and helped the team because we wanted to win this," Gibbs said. "It's really tough moving up because the kids are bigger and stronger, but my breaststroke has gotten a lot better."
Hilltoppers, while falling short of a championship, continued its impressive rise in the conference standings.
"Coming from last place to second place in five years is awesome," said coach Salle Plunkett, whose team was third last season. "Hopefully we'll continue our progression upward."
Hilltoppers had 11 high point swimmers, including a sweep in 9-10 boys, where Carter Nelson, Aidan Knox and Ryan Groszek placed first, second and third, respectively.
Other award winners for the team were Madison Rey (first in 8-and-under girls), Emily Traube (third in 8-and-under girls), Caleb Bahr (second in 8-and-under boys), Hannah Plunkett (tied for second in 8-and-under girls); Clayton Foster (tied for first in 13-14 boys), Hannah Shinn (third in 15-18 girls), Max Alander (first in 15-18 boys) and Skyler Shinn (second in 15-18 boys).
"Having that many high point kids is a highlight for us," Plunkett said. "Performance-wise, this was more than we were hoping for. It's a great conference and we're proud to be in it."
Four Kings Point swimmers earned high point honors: Briana Pierce (third in 9-10 girls), Sean Workman (tied for first in 13-14 boys), Sammy Hayen (second in 15-18 girls) and Patrick Hesse (third in 15-18 boys).
For the seventh year in a row, Kings Point was undefeated in dual meets. But the Stingrays didn't have as much depth this year, and first-year coach Scott Gardner knew that would be more important in a conference meet format.
"For individual events, you score down to 16 places," Gardner said. "In a dual meet, you get seven points for winning a relay and none if you lose, but in conference, you finish anywhere from one to nine and you get some points.
"I'm still proud of the kids. In six of 14 relays, we got first place. I asked the kids to finish one place higher than they were seeded and most of them did it.
"On paper, it looked like we would finish third and that's what we did. O'Fallon and Hilltoppers have really built up their depth. They have 120 or 130 kids and they have somebody in the top half of just about every age group."
Fourth-place Highland had four-point winners: Ben Walter (first in 8-and-under boys), Victoria Thomae (second in 11-12 girls), Ally Becker (third in 11-12 girls) and Ben Thomae (third in 11-12 boys).
St. Clair, which surpassed the expectations of longtime coach Bob Kaiser with its fifth-place finish, had two high point swimmers. Willa Nagy and Sophia Burwitz placed first and second, respectively, in 9-10 girls.
"Each year they come out here, the St. Clair kids seem to rise to a level where nobody thinks they can," Kaiser said. "Looking at the seeds coming into the meet, we expected to be sixth, so finishing fifth is huge."
Kaiser, who has been coaching at St. Clair for 38 years, said the conference is stronger than ever.
"With what's happening in this league, it's becoming more and more competitive to be at the top," said Kaiser, whose team dominated the conference in the 1980s and 1990s. "We don't have either the numbers or the year-round swimmers to compete for first place."
Top swimmers for Freeburg were Elias Czech (first in 11-12 boys) and Haley Mueth (tied for second in 13-14 girls).
Brittany Love of Scott Air Force Base added to her trophy collection by placing first in 13-14 girls. Sharks teammate Thomas Berthe was third in 13-14 boys.
