Tigers celebrate title, cuts

Watching Central boys swimming coach Dayna Powell during the Show Me Conference swimming meet Thursday, it was not hard to figure out how the Tigers' day was going.

Powell spent much of the meet at the Central Municipal Pool in one celebratory mode or another, as the Tigers claimed their third straight conference title and -- more importantly -- picked up four more state-qualifying cuts.

"I'm exhausted," Powell said after the meet. "I swam just about every stroke with them. It was just so emotional. These times were amazing."

Central won the event with 448 points. Notre Dame finished second with 395 and Poplar Bluff had 199.

Before the meet, Powell had mentioned two state cut hopefuls -- junior Jake Meyer in the 500-yard freestyle and sophomore Peyton Waggener in the 200 individual medley. Meyer surprised nearly everyone in the pool by qualifying in both the 500 free and 200 free.

"After he swam at Springfield, he wasn't sure he wanted to do the 200," Powell said. "When he was out at the 100 at 55 seconds I said, 'Wow.' He dropped from a 1:57 to a 1:53, which was amazing."

Meyer was not done with his amazing performances. In the 500 free -- Meyer needed to drop a little more than a second off his top time to make the state cut of 5 minutes, 13.99 seconds -- Meyer ended up shaving nearly 10 seconds off his top time of the year to finish in 5:06.18. Meyer finished second to teammate Kris Metje, who posted a time of 5:04.59.

"I don't think any of us dreamed he'd get that time today," Powell said. "I thought he'd be under the cut, but I didn't think he'd be in single digits."

Metje's time, his personal best, was a meet record. He had already made the state cut in the event.

Metje also set the meet record in the 200 individual medley, qualifying for the state meet with a time of 2:08.18.

Waggener finished right behind Metje in the 200 IM, finishing in 2:08.36. Coming into the conference meet, Waggener's top time had been 2:12.15.

"Peyton, he's kind of quiet, so you don't know what he's thinking," Powell said. "But he's as competitive as anyone on the team."

Jason Mercer and Hunter Givens each picked up a pair of individual wins for the Tigers. Mercer set meet records in the 50 free and 100 butterfly, and Givens set a meet record in the 100 back and won the 100 free.

Central set a meet record in the 200 medley relay and also won the 400 free relay.

"It's been a great year," Powell said. "These guys are very playful and rambunctious, but they got the job done. I had to get after them early in the week, but they got the job done."

Notre Dame senior Jameson Kuper broke two of his own meet records, winning his only two individual events in the 100 breaststroke (1:00.11) and 200 free (1:47.15).

In what was likely the most thrilling race of the meet, Notre Dame's 200 free relay team nipped the Tigers by 0.14 seconds. Notre Dame missed out on qualifying for the state meet by less than a second. The Bulldogs finished in a meet-record 1:36.68, with the state cut 1:36.09.

"That was so exciting," Notre Dame coach Lenny Kuper said of the 200 relay finish. "I really wasn't sure which one of the teams won. The guys were really pumped. We dropped 3 seconds off our best time. To have dropped 3 seconds like that in the 200 is amazing.

"I think taking first place and beating the conference record, that's a great thing in itself."

Jameson Kuper and Mercer shared conference MVP honors.

Area results

200 medley relay -- 1. Central, 1:46.16, 2. Notre Dame (Jameson Kuper, Jordan Voss, Adam Reinagel, Edward Doyle).

200 free -- 1. Kuper (N), 1:47.15, 2. Jake Meyer (C), 1:53.41, 3. Dillon Klaffer (N), 2:12.69.

200 IM -- 1. Kris Metje (C), 2:08.18, 2. Peyton Waggener (C), 2:08.36.

50 free -- 1. Jason Mercer (C), 22.79, 2. Lance Carroll (N), 24.88, 3. Matt Holmes (C), 24.94.

100 butterfly -- 1. Mercer (C), 56.83, 2. Reinagel (N), 1:01.34

100 free -- 1. Hunter Givens (C), 50.35, 2. Daniel Austin (C), 53.69, 3. Voss (N), 54.47.

500 free -- 1. Metje (C), 5:04.59, 2. Meyer (C), 5:06.18, 3. Logan Bollinger (N), 5:50.22.

200 free relay -- 1. Notre Dame (Kuper, Voss, Reinagel, Doyle), 1:36.68, 2. Central, 1:36.82.

100 back -- 1. Givens (C), 1:00.31, 2. Austin (C), 1:02.08, 3. Voss (N), 1:06.44.

100 breast -- 1. Kuper (N), 1:01.11, 2. Waggener (C), 1:06.64, 3. Matt Cantrell (C), 1:12.82.

400 free relay -- 1. Central, 3:32.38, 2. Notre Dame (Bollinger, Neil Kanneberg, Klaffer, Nick McCrate), 4:02.19.