Cape Rock Invitational expands to 26 teams in 11th year

Since its inception 11 years ago, the annual Cape Rock Invitational boys swimming and diving meet has continued to flourish.

Twenty-six schools from across the state -- five of which will feature two teams -- will convene Saturday at Central Municipal Pool to compete in the largest gathering the city has ever seen.

The meet added 10 schools from last year, and Central coach Dayna Powell believes hospitality has a lot to do with it.

"It's great because we bring a lot of students, student-athletes, coaches and families into our community, and they do tell us that they're treated more friendly in Cape Girardeau," Powell said. "That's why I think we continue to grow this meet."

Notre Dame, Jackson, Central and Saxony Lutheran will represent the Southeast Missouri area. Several schools from the Columbia, Missouri, area will make the trip, including Rock Bridge and Battle. Glendale and Greenwood are two of the handful of schools that will travel from the Springfield, Missouri, area. More than 10 schools from the St. Louis area also will compete, including Lafayette, Eureka, Parkway North and Parkway Central, which finished fourth at last year's Missouri Swimming and Diving Championships.

Powell said the meet is at maximum capacity.

"We have a few schools -- Lindbergh, Glendale, Webster Groves and Eureka -- that have been with us for a while," Powell said. "They were kind of like the anchors. They committed to the meet early on 11 years ago, and they've been coming ever since."

The meet will feature plenty of talented swimmers from across the state, including Vianney junior Nick Alexander, who is the defending champion in the 100 backstroke.

"When we first started the program 25 years ago, we had to travel a lot to St. Louis, and now to get this level of competition in our own pool and our own community is fantastic," Powell said.

The 26-school meet is nothing new to the Tigers, who opened plenty of eyes at last weekend's 28-team CoMo Invitational at the Mizzou Aquatics Center in Columbia. Freshman Brogan Davis led the way for Central with a first-place finish in the 100 backstroke and a second-place finish in the 100 butterfly.

The team's performance was more than enough for Powell, who said her expectations were exceeded by leaps and bounds.

"We usually swim pretty well there. We typically swim better in our own pool. It was just amazing," Powell said. "It may be hard to match that this week, even though it's in our own pool."

Davis' time of 52.67 seconds in the 100 backstroke set a new school record, while the 200 medley relay team of Davis, Sam Hahs, Christian Retter and John Young came away with a fourth-place finish in 1:42.60 that broke the school's longest-standing record of 21 years.

"He's on the cusp of setting the school record on the 100 [butterfly]," Powell said about Davis. "We got our second relay [state] cut last week. We're trying to get our third relay cut this weekend."

The Tigers' 108 points were good enough for an eighth-place finish last weekend. Hahs, a freshman, finished seventh in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:02.72.

Powell said Hahs will continue to try to make the state cut in the 100 butterfly and 100 breaststroke.

"We have some goals for this weekend and hopefully for conference and state," Powell said. "It's thrilling and exciting, but it's also kind of nerve-racking."

Jackson and Notre Dame also will look to use the meet for improvement as the conference meet draws closer. The Indians finished won a three-team meet Tuesday at the Southeast Aquatics Center.

"With our local teams, we really have some really strong competitors here," Powell said. "Jackson's got several in Austin Hobbs and Joey Janisse who already have [state] cuts."

The Bulldogs placed second at Tuesday's meet.

"Notre Dame is probably the most solid of the four of us, as far as having consistency throughout," Powell said. "They're just missing a cut. Really in girls and boys swimming this year, Southeast Missouri is going to be represented pretty well across the state."

Diving events are slated to begin at 8:30 a.m., followed by swimming events at 1 p.m.

While Powell said the team is making sure all the technical kinks are worked out to ensure a smooth operation of events, the facilities and recent renovations at Central Municipal Pool offer incomparable coordination.

"The community had a vision to build this pool," Powell said. "We go to Springfield, they're running six lanes. Even Mizzou last week ran eight lanes. We have the capability to run 10 lanes, so that's also an advantage to coming to Cape for this meet. The coaches know we're going to run it as quickly as we can."