SOUTHWEST MISSOURI SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONS!!!

The boys did it!!!  They had a total team performance and won the meet by 3 points.  This is our first SWMO title since 2008.  It was a crazy 2 days that saw 6, yes 6, new guys qualify for State.  We had 3 relays go crazy and move way up in the State rankings (directathletics.com) and we even won a couple of events too.  I don’t even know where to start to re-cap this, but lets just go event by event.  Our 200 Medley Relays were great - both A & B.  Great splits from all 8 guys.  Our B relay had the 4th fastest times overall, but we are only allowed to have 1 relay in finals.  The A Medley (Garrett, Trey, Daniel, Whitey) easily won the event and are now ranked #1 going into State with a time of 1:39.32.  I was going to be happy with a 1:41 to be honest.  The 200 free didn’t disappoint either.  Andrew Workman, Tuna and Noah all scored points and went best times.  Noah Phillips also went a best and placed top 18.  Wyatt Harness would have been top 18 with his 2:05, but we are only allowed 4 guys to score in the event.  The 200 IM’ers did well - Daniel, Andrew S., and Trey placed 4 - 5 - 6 respectively with great times.  Yutes added an 8th place finish with a 7 second best time.  The 50 freestylers all rocked.  Andrew Carson dropped 4 seconds to start us off and everyone else followed with great drops.  Corey, Nick, Matt, Garrett, Whitey, Kling, Mason B all went best times.  Garrett placed 3rd and Whitey 5th and both made State cuts.  Mason B placed 9th and Kling placed 11th overall.  Scott Brand had a solid diving performance and did a great job offsetting Glendales 3 divers by placing 5th.  The butterfly event was another incredible event for us.  AJ Stangeland got things rolling with 4 second drop and a State cut - his first ever.  Mason Brown followed up with a State cut of his own.  Celo saved his heroics for finals dropping 4 seconds.  Daniel had the 3rd fastest time in finals overall and moved up in the State rankings.  Taylor Strong placed 6th in the 100 free, Mason White was 7th with a best, Noah Scott was 8th with a best and Nick Stone was 16th with a 4 second drop.  We also had some guys go under a minute for the first time ever - Wyatt, Corey and Taylor Wilson.  The excitement continued in the 500 free with our 4 guys dropping a total of 50 seconds.  The big news here was Andrew Workman making the State cut by 1/2 a second and winning the event along the way.  Tuna placed 3rd with a 7 second best and Kling dropped 17 to claim 4th.  Noah Phillips placed 9th with a 13 second drop.  Big points for us in that event.  Up next was the 200 free relay - we went into finals ranked 3rd and really needed to move up and get 2nd and that is just what we did.  Senn, Trey, Mason B. and Whitey went a season best and moved up to 2nd place in the event.  The 100 back was another big event for us.  We knew Glendale would outscore us but we had to try to hold our spots or move up.  We did hold our spots, but Glendale moved up in the points.  Garrett challenged for the win and went a season best and Taylor held 3rd with another best time.  Celo dropped 3 seconds and placed 12th overall.  Matt Mac dropped 3 seconds and placed 16th overall.  At this point if everyone stayed in the same spots for us and Glendale the meet would end up in a tie.  The breast proved to be big.  I will start with prelims.  I am not sure if I remember who got it first, but Trey and Andrew both made their State cuts and AJ just barely missed his.  Yutes went a best and snuck (is that a word?) into the top 12 by less than a second (and it was a 4 second best time by him).  Yutes making finals proved to be very big.  Glendale only had 1 guy in the event and he held his spot in the B final.  Yutes moved up 1 spot and placed 11th overall.  Now we had the advantage. Trey, Andrew and AJ followed with 3,5,6 place finishes.  Manny also had a 4 second drop in his breast swim and Taylor Wilson equalled his season best.  We now had a 9 point lead going into the last relay.  As long as we held our spot, we would win the meet.  Our relay exchanges were not the fastest, but we dropped 5 seconds and moved up a spot to 2nd place in the relay.  More importantly, we locked up the win in the meet and our first SWMO Championship since 2008. 

And just to add a little cherry to the top of all of it, AJ decided to drop over a second and make his 2nd State cut - this time in the 100 breast during the Last Chance Meet.

We couldnt be more proud of the job the boys did, especially considering where we were just a week or so before.  It was great to see all of the parents cheering in the stands.  A big thank you to the girls team and parents who showed up to support and the alumni parents (O’Dell, McFall, Waggoner and Maurers) who showed in their gold & brown.  It was a fun meet to be a part of.  We have one more week and more to accomplish. 

The following guys qualified for State this weekend
AJ Stangeland - 100 Fly & 100 Breast
Mason Brown - 100 Fly
Mason White - 50 Free
Andrew Workman - 500 Free
Trey Upton - 100 Breast
Andrew Smith - 100 Breast

That goes along with the guys who had their cuts going into the weekend
Garrett Estebo - 50 Free, 100 Free, 100 Back
Scott Brand - Diving
Daniel Senn - 100 Fly
Taylor Strong - 100 Back

And of course all 3 of our relays
200 Medley - currently ranked #1 in State
200 Free - currently ranked #10 in State
400 Free - currently ranked #16 in State