Lady Mules perform well at Rec Relays

It was a solid result for a litmus test of competition for the Poplar Bluff Lady Mules swim team Thursday night at Southeast Missouri State University.

The squad participated in the SEMO Conference Rec Relays and finished third behind winners Cape Central (96) and Jackson (60), just five points short of the runner-up spot with 56 points.

“The girls have worked really hard the past week and over Christmas break to see new PRs,” Poplar Bluff coach Kyler Sowell said. “We saw amazing times at Springfield. We changed up the relays a little yesterday to see people in events we may not have seen them in recently and we saw good PRs again yesterday. They are stepping up. Most relays ranked three or higher in placement so that is awesome.

“Having good competition in the conference means a lot.”

The nine-event competition featured the three regularly run relays with additional ones created to specialize in the relay format such as backstroke, breaststroke, or various distance medleys.

The Lady Mules ended up with a handful of second-place finishes including in the 200-yard freestyle (Lily Gregory, Keira Wills, Kinsley Gibbs, Katie Scott; 1:59.61), 400-medley relay (Gregory, Reece Prenger, Willis, Scott; 5:10.76) and 3x100 butterfly (Gibbs, Willis, Prenger; 4:06.53).

Poplar Bluff also collected third place in the 3x300-yard freestyle (Scott, Gracie Brown, Gibbs; 12:80.8), 400 freestyle (Lily Wilson, Georgia Pogue, Lily Hicks, Prenger; 5:05.33), and 3x100 breaststroke (Ava Richardson, Savannah Hanner, Brown; 4:38.39).