The pool at East Ridge was buzzing on the evening of February 5, 2026, as the East Ridge Raptors and the Stillwater Ponies squared off in what proved to be a tightly contested dual meet from the first splash to the final touch. When the scores were tallied, East Ridge had edged Stillwater 98 to 88, with neither team ever pulling completely clear of the other. Individual stars emerged on both sides, relays swung momentum back and forth, and the meet ultimately came down to a handful of pivotal swims in the back half of the card.
200 Medley Relay
Stillwater opened the meet with a statement, taking the top medley relay slot in 1:42.46 to earn five points right out of the gate. East Ridge answered with a second-place finish of 1:44.23, good for three points, and added a third-place relay at 1:51.62 for one more. Stillwater’s B relay touched fourth at 1:55.22, while East Ridge’s C squad rounded out the field at 1:56.77. A strong opener for the Ponies, who built a four-point cushion before a single individual had hit the water.
200 Free
East Ridge wasted no time clawing back in the 200 freestyle, where junior Tayo Sennowo led wire to wire in 1:53.63, edging Raptor teammate Colton Rutkowski (1:55.11) for a 1-2 finish that banked eight East Ridge points in one shot. Stillwater sophomore Will Foster was right there in third at 1:55.39, just two-tenths behind Rutkowski, grabbing a crucial point for the Ponies. The top three were separated by fewer than two seconds, making this one of the closest multi-swimmer battles of the night.
200 IM
Stillwater freshman Ben Brazis announced himself as one of the night’s headliners with a dominant 200 IM victory, touching the wall in 2:02.26 to claim five points for the Ponies. East Ridge sophomore Benjamin Briese pushed hard but settled for second at 2:04.38, and Stillwater’s Avery Lerch rounded out the top three at 2:06.54, splitting the event’s remaining points evenly between the clubs. Brazis’s effort was the fastest individual swim of the evening to that point, and it served notice that Stillwater’s freshman would be a force all meet long.
50 Free
The sprint event belonged to Stillwater senior Sam Loken, who threw down a blazing 23.16 to win the 50 free going away and give the Ponies another five points. East Ridge sophomore Noah Nordman was fast in his own right at 23.60 for three points, while Stillwater’s Cooper Larson touched third in 24.43 to keep another point in the Ponies’ column. The top-to-bottom depth showed here, with Stillwater senior Ethan Finch (24.71) and East Ridge junior Brady Bednar (24.72) separated by just one-hundredth of a second in fourth and fifth.
Running score: East Ridge 37, Stillwater 36
6 Dives
Stillwater sophomore Ethan Teague was in a class of his own on the boards, posting a commanding 293.55 points to take the diving event by a wide margin and deliver five more points to the Ponies. Stillwater junior Grady Flynn backed him up with a second-place score of 210.10, giving Stillwater a dominant 1-2 sweep for eight combined points. East Ridge junior Evan Twisk salvaged one point for the Raptors with a third-place finish at 187.20. Diving was a clear strength for Stillwater, and the sweep here would prove crucial to the final margin.
100 Fly
East Ridge senior Jamison Reese delivered one of the night’s most impressive swims in the 100 butterfly, winning convincingly in 55.03 to earn five points for the Raptors. Stillwater senior Zach Cody gave chase and finished a strong second at 56.11, three points for the Ponies, while East Ridge’s Nordman was right behind at 56.36 for third — a second straight top-three finish for the versatile sophomore. Reese’s sub-56 effort stood as one of the fastest swims of the meet and helped East Ridge begin to reassert control.
100 Free
The 100 free was a marquee clash between East Ridge’s Sennowo and Stillwater’s Loken, two of the fastest swimmers on the deck all evening, and it did not disappoint. Tayo Sennowo got the better of it by the slimmest of margins, touching in 50.69 to Loken’s 50.81 — a razor-thin 0.12 separating first and second place. East Ridge senior Colton Rutkowski (52.79) finished just ahead of Stillwater’s Finch (52.83) for third, meaning East Ridge claimed five and one while Stillwater earned three. The Sennowo-Loken duel alone was worth the price of admission.
500 Free
East Ridge sophomore Lucien Espinosa-Splichal ground out a well-paced victory in the 500 freestyle, finishing in 5:08.56 and banking five more points for the Raptors. Stillwater’s Cody bounced back from his 100 free runner-up showing to claim second at 5:10.83, with Pony junior Jackson Avery adding a third-place finish at 5:16.51 — three points and one point, respectively, for Stillwater. The 500 free proved to be a split event that kept both teams in striking range heading into the relays.
200 Free Relay
East Ridge’s top relay unit turned in a sharp 1:34.96 to win the 200 free relay and take five critical points, edging Stillwater’s A squad by just 0.25 seconds — Stillwater touched in 1:35.21 for three points. East Ridge’s B relay (1:42.72) and Stillwater’s B relay (1:43.16) filled out third and fourth, earning one more point for the Raptors. The relay exchanges were clean across the board, and East Ridge’s narrow first-place win here proved timely as the meet entered its final stretch.
Running score: East Ridge 74, Stillwater 66
100 Back
Once again, Ben Brazis was the story, the Stillwater freshman turning in a stellar 54.97 in the 100 backstroke to take first place and five more points for the Ponies. East Ridge’s Reese, fresh off his butterfly win, grabbed second in 57.21 for three Raptor points, while East Ridge junior Neel Perumalachetty claimed third at 1:03.97 for one more. Brazis’s second individual win of the night cemented his status as the Ponies’ standout performer, and his backstroke time was among the best splits of the evening across any event.
100 Breast
East Ridge’s Briese made it a big night for himself as well, following up his 200 IM runner-up finish with a victory in the 100 breaststroke, clocking 1:03.56 to earn five points for the Raptors. Stillwater sophomore Avery Lerch again gave chase, finishing second in 1:04.20 — just 0.64 behind — for three Pony points. East Ridge sophomore Paolo Dell’Anna rounded out the top three at 1:08.22, giving the Raptors six out of a possible nine points in the breaststroke. The two-event performance from Briese on the night mirrored Brazis’s double on the other side, a fascinating parallel thread running through the meet.
400 Free Relay
With the meet hanging in the balance, East Ridge’s top relay closed things out emphatically, winning the 400 free relay in 3:26.21 to secure the final five points and seal the victory. Stillwater’s A relay finished second in 3:29.46 for three points, and the Ponies’ B squad claimed third at 3:34.17 for one more, giving Stillwater a partial recovery but not enough to close the gap. East Ridge’s second relay finished fourth at 3:48.16. The Raptors’ relay depth in the anchor event was the exclamation point on a meet they controlled for stretches despite never running away with it.
Meet Summary
East Ridge took the final score 98–88, but the numbers alone don’t capture how genuinely competitive this meet was from first event to last. Stillwater controlled the early going, winning the opening medley relay and posting a dominant diving sweep from Teague and Flynn that looked like it might be the difference-maker. But East Ridge’s individual depth — anchored by the one-two punching of Tayo Sennowo, who doubled up in the 200 and 100 free, and Jamison Reese, who won the butterfly and placed second in the backstroke — gave the Raptors a steady stream of points that gradually wore down the Ponies’ cushion. On the other side, Stillwater freshman Ben Brazis was nothing short of spectacular, winning both the 200 IM and the 100 back and putting up times that would impress at any level. In the end, East Ridge’s relay program proved to be the margin: the Raptors collected 24 relay points to Stillwater’s 18, a six-point swing that was almost exactly the difference in the final score. It was a meet worth watching every event, and both programs left with plenty to build on heading deeper into the 2026 season.
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