Warren Central junior Collin Gurtowski, top, outswims Vicksburg’s High’s Tim Beach in the backstroke at the St. Aloysius Invitational at City Pool on Saturday. (Melanie Duncan ThortisThe Vicksburg Post)

[9/14/03]Cleveland’s Hal Smith took first place in the men’s 100- and 200-yard freestyle to help the Wildcats to victory at the St. Aloysius Invitational swim meet Saturday at City Pool.

Cleveland won the men’s meet, beating St. Al 128-87. Madison Central was third with 81 points, while Warren Central took eighth with 21 points and Vicksburg High had six points to finish 10th.

Allen Karel had St. Al’s only first-place finish of the day, in the 100-yard backstroke, and also finished second in the 100-yard butterfly. Karel’s time of 1 minute, 4.51 seconds beat Cleveland’s Ryan Poe by 3 1/2 seconds.

Will Tomlinson was second in the 50-yard freestyle and third in the 100 freestyle, Jase Ebersole was second in the 500-yard freestyle, and Brian Dyess came in third in the 100 breaststroke.

WC and VHS both had their best finishes of the day in the 200-yard individual medley. WC’s Jacob Fischenich was fifth in the event, while Joseph Beard was ninth for the Gators. Beard also finished ninth in the 500-yard freestyle.

In the girls meet, WC’s Elena English posted a pair of top-three performances to help WC to a fourth-place finish in the team standings.

WC totaled 52 points, just ahead of West Jones (50 points) and behind Clinton, which had 54. Cleveland totaled 114 points to win the meet, easily beating Madison Central’s 65 points. St. Al was eighth, with 33 points, and VHS had 18 points to tie Brandon for ninth.

English was edged by Cleveland’s Erin Meador by .05 seconds in the 100 freestyle and finished second. Earlier, she was third in the 50 freestyle behind teammate Kris Fischenich. WC had a pair of top-three relay teams, in the 200 medley relay and the 200 freestyle relay.

For VHS, Cat Rowan swam to an impressive second-place finish in the 100 breaststroke and followed it up with a fourth-place effort in the 200 IM.