Kickapoo swimming wins eight golds on way to Ozark Conference title

By Scott Vanscoy (For OzarksSportsZone.com)

The Kickapoo Chiefs took the Girls Ozarks Conference Swimming and Diving Championship on Monday night, out-scoring runner up Glendale by 49.5 points. Kickapoo was led by their seniors, including Emilie St. George’s two wins and Ashlyn Moore, who set meet records in her two wins.

Kickapoo coach Pete Hill was very complimentary to his upperclassmen.

“It’s no harder to be the champion versus to be the last place team,” said Hill. “What you’ve got to have is a great group of kids, girls or boys, and this year we are very blessed to have an amazing group of girls. This is a bunch of year-round swimmers led by Ashlyn Moore. We’ve got Sally Cybulski and Karmen Hales, both phenomenal swimmers. I mean, we’ve been blessed with a great group of girls that really gelled well together. I’ve got the donuts, Emilie and Nikole St. George, so it’s been a great last couple of years with a really solid core group of girls that kind of just keep replacing each other. We have at least 9 or 10 seniors so that’s going to hurt next year with them leaving.”

The Kickapoo squad is starting to come together as a team and is looking forward to the next few meets. Moore, who set two records, credited her team for her success.

“It’s exciting to be on this team,” said Moore. “I’ve only been on the team for three years because I moved to Springfield after my freshman year. I wish I had another year but I feel like I’ve gotten to accomplish a lot. It’s so cool to be able to cheer other people on and have people look up to me. We are all one family. We have a really strong senior group this year so I feel like that’s good. I think it’s cool because we lead by example so there is some pressure to be the example to our teammates.”

Hill, who has been at Kickapoo over a decade, has led his teams to multiple Conference championships. He has high expectations for the next few weeks but is realistic when looking at State. Hill would like to see his team achieve a top-four finish.

“I hope that with the way our relays are looking and with the way the girls are swimming, that we are top four so these girls can finally take home a plaque from State,” said Hill. “That would be phenomenal.”

When asked what it will take to reach the top-four, Hill pointed to his upper classmen.

“It’s going to take Ashlyn swimming super strong, it’s going to take both Emilie and Nikole St. George to swim great in their individual events, and it’s going to take the relays to step up and place in the top three or four,” said Hill. “Ashlyn set two meet records tonight; she broke three school records the other weekend when we were in Kirkwood. Emilie St. George broke the 500 Free school record. Like I said, I’m blessed with a group of strong girls that make it easy.”

Kickapoo has the Springfield Invitational this Saturday and then the Southwest Missouri Championships the following Saturday. Then there are two more weeks until the State Tournament.