Zizzer Swimming is off to a fast start with several tremendous wins, and they invite the community to come out to cheer them on at the their first home meet to be held at the West Plains Civic Center this Thursday, Sept 22nd at 4:30.
Zizzer Swim Team left to right Front row: Avery Miller, Bryson Kittrell, Elias Curtis
Back row: Toby Keith, Landen Johnson, Holding the 2nd place plaque from the Zizzer Invitational Team Captains Ethan Squires and Isaac Kammerer, James Allchin, Dawson Fiorino
Kicking-off their season at the Zizzer Invitational, the team boasted a 2nd place win, being outnumbered only by the 20-member team from Carthage. Individual Zizzer honors at the meet included: Junior Elias Curtis: 2nd place 200m Individual Medley, 3rd place 100m Fly. Junior Dawson Fiorino: 2nd place 100m Backstroke, 4th place – 100m Fly. Senior Landon Johnson: 8th place 100m Breaststroke. Senior Isaac Kammerer: 1st place – 400m Free, 4th place – 200m Free. Junior Toby Keith: 6th place 50m Free. Sophomore Avery Miller: 1st place 100m Free, 2nd place 100m Breastroke. Senior Ethan Squires: 6th place 200m Free, 6th place 100m Free. In relays, the Zizzers took 1st place in the 400m Free Relay (Kammerer, Curtis, Squires, Fiorino) and 2nd place in both the Medley Relay (Curtis, Miller, Fiorino, Johnson) and 200m Free Relay (Miller, Johnson, Squires, Kammerer). Racking up additional points for the Zizzers were Senior James Allchin (400m Free – 9th place, 200 IM – 14th place) and Freshman Bryson Kittrell (50m Free – 10th place, 100m Free – 12th place).
The Zizzers impressively took 5th place at the Ozarks Invitational Sept. 10 where they competed against 17 teams from both Class 1 and Class 2 schools. Bringing home individual honors were Curtis (6th place 100yd Fly) and Kammerer (6th place 500yd Free). The relay team of Miller, Fiorino, Kammerer, and Curtis brought home medals in the 400yd Free Relay (3rd place) and the 200 Medley Relay (6th place).
This past weekend, the Zizzers took to the road to compete against 28 Class 1 and 2 schools in a massive meet hosted in Kansas City. Placing in the top 16 finishes at prelims and moving on to finals were: Kammerer (8th place medal- 500 yd Free, 14th place – 200 Free), Curtis (16th place 100Fly), Miller (9th place – 100 Free), the 400yd Free Relay (Kammerer, Squires, Curtis, Miller) – 7th place, the 200yd Free Relay (Curtis, Fiorino, Johnson, and Kammerer) and the 200 Medley Relay (Miller, Johnson, Fiorino, and Squires) – both 16th place.
In Dual meets, the team record currently stands at 11-2. At the time of press, 23 individual swims and all 3 relay events are qualified for State Meet consideration which will be held in St. Peters, MO in November. Zizzer Coach Ryan Smith is excited for the upcoming meets and looks for several Zizzer School records to be broken.
With the combined efforts of the City of West Plains and MSU-WP, the Civic Center pool was recently upgraded with starting blocks donated by The Waves Swim Club which will allow for swim meets to be held year-round. “I am humbled by the generosity and support of our community for youth sport,” said Waves Swim Club Head Coach Kristi Sheridan who spearheaded the project. She thanked Adams Construction as well as a number of generous sponsors of the project. Of the 9 Zizzer men’s team swimmers, all have trained under Coach Sheridan through the years and credit her with their love of the sport. They expect Sheridan will be their loudest fan at Thursday’s meet. Please join her in cheering on the Zizzers.
