By Don Eskins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Lafayette High dominated a 28-team field gathered at the John Foster Natatorium on Saturday afternoon to compete in this year’s 2020 Springfield Invitational Swim Meet.
Lafayette put up 317 points on the scoreboard to claim this year’s invitational title.
Placing second were the Glendale Lady Falcons who gathered in 192 points while Rock Bridge edged out the Kickapoo Lady Chiefs for third place by just one point 182-181.
“It was a lot of fun today. But Lafayette is just an extremely good team so for us to have placed second and finished as the top team in the area was spectacular for our kids,” said Glendale High head coach Steve Boyce.
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“Also Kickapoo beat us at the Ozark Conference just a couple of days ago,” the Lady Falcon coach said, “so to bounce back and finish ahead of them today was quite an accomplishment for our kids to.”
As has been the case throughout the season Glendale continues to finish among the teams at the top due to their great depth. The Lady Falcons had no individual champions at the invitational.
Area Individual Winners
Maggie Moore of Summit Preparatory-NCA enjoyed a great day of swimming at the meet. Moore grabbed firsts in both the 100-yard Backstroke, with a time of 58.53, and the 50-yard Freestyle, with a time of 24.51
“I was really excited about swimming today against competition that has posted better times than me,” said Moore. “My goal was basically just to focus on me and not worry about what the others were doing. That’s what I did and I won.”
Moore was also excited about her team.
“Our team’s doing well. We’re improving every day and today we’ve already dropped some time,” she said. “We’re hoping we can continue to improve every day and get a lot of people to state.”
Cabrini Johnson, of Logan-Rogersville, was also a two event winner at the invitational posting victories in both the 100-yard Breaststroke (1:07.49) and the 500-yard Freestyle (5:14.96).
“My 500 time wasn’t a bad time. I’ve been sitting for a while since my first race so that might have had a little something to do with it. But winning the 500 always feels great,” said Johsnon.
Maddie Atwood, also of Logan-Rogersville, picked up a win grabbing the gold in the 100-yard Butterfly with a time of 1:01.24.
“I was ready to race today,” said an enthusiastic Atwood. “I swam against a lot of my friends and it’s always fun to race against people you know. I got the win and I’m really happy about it.”
Parkview’s Audrey Duchsherer claimed gold medals in the 200-yard Freestyle (1:57.28) and the 100-yard Freestyle (53.69).
“I think my time in the 200 Freestyle was a good one for this point in our season,” said Duchsherer. “I do know that I had a lot of fun in the event today. The girls in my heat were really fast and they pushed me a lot.”
Meet Results – Area Top Finishers
200 Yard Medley Relay: 3. Kickapoo – 1:55.70
200 Yard Freestyle: 1. Audrey Duchscherer – Parkview – 1:57.28
200 Yard IM: 2. Faith Guyer – Summit- NCA – 2:16.19
50 Yard Freestyle: 1. Maggie Moore – Summit- NCA – 24.51
1 MTR Diving: 1. Chloe Cothern – Kickapoo – 374.40
100 Yard Butterfly: 1. Maddie Atwood – Logan-Rogersville – 1:01.24
100 Yard Freestyle: 1. Audrey Duchscherer – Parkview – 53.69
500 Yard Freestyle: 1. Cabrini Johnson – Logan-Rogersville – 5:14.96
200 Yard Freestyle Relay: 1. Kickapoo – 1:44.70
100 Yard Backstroke: 1. Maggie Moore – Summit- NCA – 58.83
100 Yard Breaststroke: 1. Cabrini Johnson – Logan-Rogersville – 1:07.49
400 Yard Freestyle Relay: 3. Kickapoo – 3:47.62
Top Ten Teams
1. Lafayette – 317
2. Glendale – 192
3. Rock Bridge – 182
4. Kickapoo – 181
5. Springfield Central – 170
5. Lee’s Summit – 170
7. Logan-Rogersville – 144
8. Summit Prep- NCA – 127
9. Nixa – 110
10. Ozark – 108
