Flashes eye elusive team championship at state meet
Published 11:53 am Friday, October 28, 2011
Ever since the Mississippi High School Activities Association sanctioned swimming as a state championship event, the St. Aloysius Flashes have found themselves in a big pool with plenty of big fish.
With the continued growth of high school swimming in Mississippi, the MHSAA this year divided its state meet into two divisions — one for Class 5A and 6A schools, the other for Class 4A and lower.
St. Al, a Class 1A school, falls into the latter category. The change has set up a potential state title run for the boys team Saturday at the MHSAA state meet at Delta State University in Cleveland.
Longtime Flashes coach Bruce Ebersole, who has coached plenty of individual state champions, said this is his team’s best chance to claim a team title.
“We’ve still got to make the swims,” Ebersole said. “But, I feel we’ve got a good chance to do it. When the MHSAA divided the schools into two divisions, we are now competing with schools closer to our size, instead of the schools like Biloxi, Tupelo and Madison Central.”
A big reason for the Flashes’ optimism has been previous performances against their main competition, Madison-St. Joseph and St. Andrew’s.
“Earlier this season, our boys won the meet at St. Joe and we also won the meet at St. Andrew’s,” Ebersole said. “We also won our own meet, a tri-meet with us, Vicksburg and Warren Central, and lastly, the South State meet in Laurel.”
A key this season has been the team’s improved depth. Eleven boys and six girls will compete for St. Al at the state meet. Among the boys are five seniors, including sprinter Morgan Stone.
Stone has the top qualifying time in the 100-yard backstroke, and is seeded fourth in the 50-yard freestyle. He said the two-division format has given the Flashes some extra motivation.
“It’s fair now,” Stone said. “We have a lot of older guys who have worked hard for this for several years. We’re very excited about this chance.”
St. Al’s other seniors are Chris Luke, Andy Bell, John Phillips and Winston Hayes. The team’s standout swimmer, however, is sophomore Wally Wibowo.
Wibowo will be a medalist favorite in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle and the team’s anchor in two freestyle relays. Wibowo’s 100-yard time at the South State meet two weeks ago was more than two seconds better than anyone else in the field for the state meet.
“I felt like I peaked a bit when I was 14, but just recently, I broke through with a personal best in the 50 free and that was a good sign,” Wibowo said.