By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
With four winners and swimmers scoring in every event, the Carthage girls swim team turned in a dominant performance at Thursday’s Joplin Invitational.
The Tigers scored 24 times and racked up 288 points to claim first place, finishing ahead of Nevada (183) and Joplin (174).
“We swam some kids in different events that they normally don’t swim every day,” said head coach Braden McBride.
The experiments paid off. Madison Riley won the 200-meter freestyle and also swam on the first-place 400-meter freestyle relay team. Both the 200 time of 2:26.21 and the 400 relay time of 4:39.08 are state consideration times.
“That’s the first time this year she’s swam those events,” McBride said.
Cassidy Smith won the 50 freestyle in 29.91 seconds and she took first in the 100 freestyle in 1:06.65.
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The Tigers won the 400 relay with Riley, Hope Fultz, Nadya Housh and Smith swimming.
“We put some kids in different events to see how they fit,” McBride said. “We’re very fortunate. We’re pretty deep so these local meets like this we can put four into the top 12 and score and usually get quite a few points.”
Carthage scored three times apiece in the 200 freestyle, 200 individual medley, 50 freestyle, 100 butterfly and 100 freestyle and two times each in the 400 freestyle, 100 backstroke and 100 breaststroke.
Nevada scored in nine of 11 events and had one first-place finish in the 200-meter freestyle relay. Brynn Wolfe, Abbi Baldwin, Maggie Leisure and Emma Leisure finished in 2:05.96.
The Tigers scored four times in the 50 freestyle; Emma Leisure was third, Wolfe fourth, Baldwin sixth and Maggie Leisure was seventh.
The team also had three second-place finishes. Maggie Leisure, Baldwin, Emma Leisure and Wolfe were second in the 200 medley relay, Kailyn Evans was second in the 400 freestyle and Emma Leisure, Maggie Leisure, Baldwin and Wolfe were second in the 400 freestyle relay.
“Not too bad really,” said Nevada coach Samantha Short. “We’re missing a few girls. One has mono and another girls was sick. Overall I thought their performance was really pretty good. This pool was a challenge for them because it’s a meter pool so they talk themselves out of a lot of things before they even get here. Overall they dropped time. I think they did better than they thought they were going to.”
Lamar was a distant fourth in the team standings but had three first-place finishes. Kaitlyn Davis, Emma Tennal, Meghan Watson and Haily Born won the 200 medley relay in 2:22.20. Watson won the 200 IM in 2:40.66 and Davis won the 400 freestyle in 5:26.91.
Joplin was the only other team with multiple winners.
Brenna Jones won the 100 butterfly in 1:13.64 and she also won the 100 breaststroke in 1:26.99.
Greenwood’s Fiona Wu was the winner in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:17.81, nearly five seconds better than the second-place finisher.
Hillcrest was led by a pair of third-place finishes. Emily Lesue was third in the 100 backstroke and third in the 200 freestyle.
Monett’s best result was the 200 freestyle relay where Gwen Lesue, Claire Nation, Ashton Prine and Faith Drewianka placed second.
Lebanon’s Grace Johnson was second in the 200 IM and second in the 100 freestyle.
Marshfield’s Maggie Groenke took second in the 100 breaststroke.
Thomas Jefferson’s Caroline Martucci placed third in the 100 butterfly.
Team scores
Carthage 288
Nevada 183
Joplin 174
Lamar 146
Hillcrest 113
Monett 100
Greenwood 99
Lebanon 73
Marshfield 42
Thomas Jefferson 38
