By Matt Turer (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
For the first time in the Ozarks Sports Zone era, Kickapoo girls swimming celebrated a team title on the podium at the Southwest Missouri Championships.
The Chiefs placed at least one swimmer or team in the top three in four different events and took home gold in the 400-yard freestyle relay, finishing the day with 415 team points—well ahead of Glendale’s 345 and Carl Junction’s 256.5.
Nixa (253 points) and Logan-Rogersville (244) rounded out the top five team standings.
On the individual side, Logan-Rogersville’s Cabrini Johnson walked away as the Swimmer of the Meet after taking home four golds and breaking her own meet record in the 100-yard breaststroke. Johnson also took home an individual gold in the 500-yard freestyle and was a part of Rogersville’s relay wins in the 200-yard freestyle relay and the 200-yard medley relay.
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Golden Chiefs
Kickapoo led comfortably going into the day’s final event even without taking home a gold up to that point, but that all changed when the 400-yard freestyle relay team of Nikole St. George, Emilie St. George, Ashlyn Moore and Lilly Doss posted a 3:47.01 for the win over Nixa (3:51.75) and Summit Prep/New Covenant Academy (3:52.74).
And then, the Chiefs celebrated.
“I knew we had a great shot today,” Chiefs coach Pete Hill said. “We’ve had a fantastic season. This team, I give it all to the girls. They’ve overcome a lot of things as a team and they’ve always stuck together. They’ve swam hard together. It’s super cool for them to get this tonight and finish off a fantastic season.”
The Chiefs started out the meet with the 200-yard medley relay team of Haley Angelo, Paige Lenahan, Nikole St. George and McKenzie Lowry taking silver in 1:55.02, ahead of Glendale (1:57.61) and behind event winner Rogersville (1:53.89).
Kickapoo placed two in the top three of the 200-yard freestyle, with Doss finishing second (1:59.30) and Emilie St. George third (2:00.04). It was no surprise then that in the 200-yard freestyle relay, the team of Emilie St. George, Lowry, Moore and Doss took home a silver (1:44.63).
Emilie St. George found her way back to the podium with individual silver in the 500-yard freestyle (5:23.95), finishing ahead of Central’s Hailey Richards and behind Johnson.
Kickapoo’s title on Saturday adds to a memorable season after previously winning the Ozark Conference championship a few weeks ago.
“We were blessed [this year] to have a couple of freshmen who stepped up and swam big,” Hill said. “We had girls coming back who were strong. We had a lot of girls put in a lot time in the offseason who were strong last year and got after it again, and they came after it as a team. And when I say team, I mean Kickapoo and Nixa together because they push each other every night.”
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Cabrini Does Her Thing
Cabrini Johnson’s dominance in the pool was no new experience on Saturday. The Rogersville senior has been taking home golds for four years now, and she finished her last big meet before state as strong as ever by breaking her own meet record set on February 3, 2018 (1:06.55) in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:04.19). Her time was just over one second from the pool record, set in 2007 by Parkway South’s Liz Smith (1:03.04).
“I just swam to swim,” Johnson said. “That was my last race in this pool, and it’s kind of hitting now. But it was good. I didn’t really think about meet records or pool records. I just wanted to go out strong in my last event here in Springfield.”
Johnson won her trademark 500-yard freestyle in 5:09.25, over 14 seconds ahead of Kickapoo’s Emilie St. George (5:23.95).
On top of her individual medals, Johnson joined teammates Emily Floyd, Maddie Atwood and Elise Evans as 200-yard medley relay champs (1:53.84) and 200-yard freestyle relay champs (1:42.71).
The success propelled her to the Swimmer of the Meet award, which meant a little more to earn as an outgoing senior.
“Being a senior and getting that was really cool,” Johnson said. “It was really shocking.”
Now with state on the horizon, Johnson wants to head into her Missouri State swimming career with even more hardware—something she hopes continues to help grow the sport in her town.
“Getting Rogersville another state title would be really good for the school, coming from such a small area. I hope a lot more people think swimming is fun and see the four of us that come out and kick it and think, ‘Hey, I want to be like that.’”
Duchscherer Gets Her Rose(s)
Parkview senior Audrey Duchscherer won her first two yellow roses thanks to gold medal finishes in the 200-yard freestyle (1:56.86) and the 100-yard freestyle (53.92).
“I’m really happy,” Duchscherer said after her second win. “I’ve never gotten a rose before in all my years of high school swimming, so it’s just very exciting for me to get one at this event.”
Other medal winners in the 100-yard freestyle were Summit Prep’s Faith Guyer (54.39) and Ozark’s Claire George (54.82).
Speedy Summit Prep
Summit Prep’s Guyer placed first in the 200-yard individual medley (2:12.18), pacing ahead of Central’s Richards (2:14.86) and Republic’s Mady McCrea (2:19.46).
Guyer’s teammate Maggie Moore joined her in bringing home Summit gold with a first-place in the 50-yard freestyle (24.14). Rogersville’s Maddie Atwood placed second (24.66) and West Plains’ Olivia Fiorino (25.09) was third. Moore snagged a second gold in the 100-yard backstroke (57.16), topping Thomas Jefferson’s Caroline Martucci and Carl Junction’s Skyler Sundy (1:01.93).
“I was really excited because I haven’t gotten a best time in that in a while,” Moore said. “I was really happy with my swim. Now being able to have two weeks to prepare for state is really exciting.
Watson Golden for Lamar
The 100-yard butterfly gave Lamar a champion with event favorite Meghan Watson finishing atop the podium in 59.66, ahead of Rogersville’s Atwood (59.99) and Carthage’s Madison Riley (1:00.76).
