Poplar Bluff senior swimmer Carson Todd ready for final stretch as a Mule

Poplar Bluff senior Carson Todd has had a lot of memories in the pool during his time as a Mule but what he and his teammates accomplished a couple of weeks ago in Columbia may take the top spot.

Todd, along with his fellow swimmers, helped break four (Mules broke five total) Poplar Bluff boys swimming records at the COMO Relays, one of the bigger meets of the season.

Coming into his final year, Todd said he put in the time to prepare for what he hoped was his best season yet.

“I think offseason work is almost, if not as important as during the season workouts,” he said. “I did my regular summer stuff but also more cardio, out of the water training. Hitting the gym, lifting weights, working on all different parts.”

Todd said he’s looked up to swimmers before him and he still has mentors he admires. But when it comes to teaching younger members of the team, Todd said it’s been an easy transition despite it being a little more than he’s used to.

“I feel like being a senior, trying to lead the team and also meet expectations and continuing to get better definitely carries some weight,” he said. “But I’ve prepared well and I’ve prepared the team well too for those different times ...

“I feel like I’ve been that person people can still look up to even if I’m younger or even the same age so there wasn’t a ton of change.”

For Todd, he said it’s great to have a team full of coach-able swimmers as no one is worried about being critiqued if they need help in a certain area.

In Columbia, Todd and his teammates broke the 200-medley relay and the 200-freestyle relay while Todd broke the 100-freestyle and 50-freestyle. But those weren’t the only records broken at Owen McDaniel also broke the school record in the 100-breastroke.

“We were one of the first teams that got in and didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “It’s a great pool so we were expecting some fast times but not that fast.”

After breaking his two invidual records and already one relay on the day, Todd said he teammates all agreed.

“Why don’t get go for four?” And they did.

Todd said that day ranks pretty high for him.

“Senior night coming up next week, we had a to fill out a favorite memory,” he said. “I got to state sophomore and junior year in Springfield. Those were great but I think that my best memory was breaking those records.”

As the Mules prepare for the final stretch of the season, they still have five meets, including the SEMO Conference Meet on Oct. 31 before the district meet in early November.

Todd said they won’t do anything drastic with their training at this point but keeping everything sharp is key.

“We just work on our techniques,” he said was key for the Mules in the last month of the season.