WP Girls are SWMO Champs!

For the second year in a row, the Lady Zizzer swim team won the Southwest Missouri Swim & Dive Championship in Springfield on Saturday.  In a three-day competition against 23 area swim teams, West Plains outscored the second-place team, Ozark, by 46 points and won the championship with 352 points.

 

“I am a little speechless. I think there was a lot of doubt in what we could do this year after losing so much talent from last year’s team, but the way this team has come together to put together another SWMO win is amazing!” said Head Coach Ryan Smith. “They just came in on fire and swam great all weekend and dove well on Thursday. I’m just so proud of them.”

 

It was the depth of talent that captured the win for the Lady Zizzers. All nine varsity swimmers placed in the top 18 and scored points for the team. All three Lady Zizzer relays medaled by placing in the top 6.

West Plains was led by two individual event wins by Roslyn Fiorino in the 100 freestyle (53.71 and a new school record) and in the 200 freestyle (1:57.81).

 

“It was really nice to get the 100 free record back again. I broke my older sister’s record when I was a freshman to get it and then Paige (Sheridan) broke it at State last year,” said Fiorino.

 

Evie Niesen also snagged two individual medals with a 3rd place in the 100 free (56.30) and a 6th place in the 50 free (26.18).

 

Both Penelope Autry and Gwen Fiorino won an individual medal for 5th place, Autry in the 200 IM (2:23.02) and Fiorino in the 200 free (2:07.88), the same race in which her sister placed first.

 

 The divers, Audrey Land and Emily Ritter, chipped in a 7th and 8th place and gave the Zizzers a 29 point head start before the races began on Friday. Land also broke and reset her own school record with a score of 250.60 points. 

 

“I’m just so proud of my divers,” said Diving Coach Kourtney Stockton. “This was our first year to make it through the whole season. Audrey is the one who asked me about girls diving and got it going. She was so close to making it to Districts, only 1.4 points away. Even one of the other coaches from a Springfield team came over and hugged her and told her to be proud of all that she has accomplished with diving this season. I’m so proud of Audrey. Emily’s got another year. I’m pretty sure she’ll make it to Districts next year.”