Senior duo leads Poplar Bluff in the pool this season

The Poplar Bluff Mules swim team honored its two seniors on Thursday as they hosted Farmington at the Black River Coliseum.

Seniors Carson Todd and Isaac Cato have swam a lot for head coach Kyler Sowell in their careers and their coach said it’s been great watching them grow this season and even before that.

“These guys I’ve known since they were little bitty,” he said. “It’s a bittersweet moment seeing them come up and improve as much as they’ve improved.”

Sowell said he’s trained Todd since his seventh-grade year and he’s coached Cato all but his first year in the pool.

“It’s different,” he said of watching these two swimmers. “There’s a different level of respect. Carson, we rallied the troops and we helped him with his Eagle Scout project done at Oak Grove. We’ve done a little bit of everything. Isaac, he had basic training this year so we supported him through his basic training. Seeing them grow up from them being little to becoming men. That’s what they are now.”

Poplar Bluff senior Isaac Cato stands with his mother and father at the Mules� Senior Day on Thursday. DAR/Tyler Dixon

Swimming is one of those sports where an athlete competes as an individual in some events but could be on a relay in another. It’s a interesting dynamic but Cato just had one word to describe it.

“It’s like a family every time I step in the pool,” he said. “I’ve been coming here for four years. I wasn’t very good at the beginning, obviously, but with Coach Sowell’s help and a lot of the seniors in the past, they really helped me and got me a lot better.”

He said ‘there’s just something about it’ when it comes to the others on the team.

For what’s next, Todd is headed to Missouri State while Cato is going on another path.

“I’m just going to see where life takes me,” he said. “I’ve got AIT training this summer after high school an then after that I’ll be an MP so I’ll see where that takes me.”