West Plains Zizzer swimmers finished in second place at the Ozark Conference Championships on Tuesday. The nine Zizzer swimmers were bested only by powerhouse Glendale, who brought 21 swimmers to the meet.
“I am so proud of this team,” said Head Coach Ryan Smith. “They set a goal at the beginning of the year to beat Kickapoo and Camdenton whom we had lost to last year by a slim margin at OC. They surpassed that by beating them by 44 and 37 points respectively.”
Nine new school records were set at the meet and three new state consideration qualifying times. Zizzer swimmers earned new personal best times in 18 out of 18 individual events, 3 out of 3 relays, and 12 out of 16 relay leg splits. Smith said, “Every swimmer scored in at least 1 event with the team scoring in 19 of the 21 entries.”
The 200-yard Medley Relay team of Jake Bramwell, backstroke (27.50), Kyle Jolliff, breaststroke (30.38), Nate Bramwell, butterfly (25.12), and Jaxson Wood, freestyle (24.06) finished in third place with a time of 1:47.06, breaking the school record set in 2015 by Sam Jensen, Alex Cochran, Drew Bledsoe, and Zach Jensen. The relay team is currently ranked seventeenth in the state.
In the 200-yard freestyle event, Dakota Sparks (1:55.13) finished fourth and N. Bramwell (1:58.35) finished fifth. In the 200-yard individual medley event, Isaac Kammerer (2:26.01) finished second, Jake Newberry (2:38.17) finished eighth, and Ethan Squires (3:10.04) finished twelfth.
Jake Bramwell and Jaxson Wood battled it out for the 50-yard freestyle school record of 24.11 set in 2016 by Zach Jensen. Bramwell just out touched Wood at the wall, earning a seventh-place finish in a time of 23.95 to Wood’s 24.09 eighth-place finish.
In the 100-yard butterfly, N. Bramwell (57.27) placed third and Jolliff (59.89) placed tenth. In the 100-yard freestyle, Jake Newberry (56.50) placed seventh. In the 500-yard freestyle, Dakota Sparks (5:19.10) placed second, Kammerer (5:38.11) placed fourth, and Matthew Mayberry (6:56.32) placed ninth. Mayberry logged the biggest time drop of the night, shaving 14.81 seconds off his prior best time in the long-distance event.
The 200-yard freestyle relay team of J. Bramwell (23.99), Newberry (24.91), Kammerer (25.10), and Sparks (23.65) lowered the current school record, finishing fourth in a time of 1:37.65.
In the 100-yard backstroke, J. Bramwell (1:02.97) placed fifth, Wood (1:04.59) finished sixth, and Mayberry (1:23.80) finished thirteenth. In the 100-yard breaststroke, Jolliff (1:06.82) placed second, and Squires (1:36.27) placed fifteenth.
The 400-yard freestyle relay team of N. Bramwell (52.61), Sparks (53.52), Wood (54.66), and Jolliff (54.14) finished in third place with a time of 3:34.93, dropping over eight seconds off the current school record in the event.
Smith said, “They all stepped up and left everything in the pool! It is definitely an exciting time to be a Zizzer swimmer!”
All-Conference Honors go to Sparks, N. Bramwell, Kammerer, J. Bramwell, Wood, and Jolliff. All-Conference Honorable Mentions go to Newberry, Squires, and Mayberry.
