In a slow pool, Christian Todd shattered his personal record in the 100-yard freestyle.
Todd won the 100 free with a time of 1 minute, 5.35 seconds, a good 7 seconds better then his previous best.
"I don't know why it was fast. I'm not sure. I just did really well today," Todd said. "I was really surprised ... I cut a lot of time. I've been working really hard to cut a lot of time and I was really happy."
Added Poplar Bluff coach Julia Dragon, "I think it is because he had people close to the same speed as him, so it pushed him that much harder. On top of that, I know these past couple of days we've been kind of hard on them, so I think that's helped."
In a dual meet with Cape Central, Poplar Bluff got 36 points to Cape's 123.
Kastin Caudel won the 50-free for the Mules in 26.30 for the Mules' only other win on a day where Dragon had swimmers competing out of their comfort zone.
"They get really bored when they swim the same thing over and over and over again. So I think having them pulled out of what they are normally doing and trying something knew helped them, and maybe they'll get out of the slump of 'Oh, I'm swimming the same thing every time.'"
Caudel doesn't usually swim the backstroke and took third in 1:17.24. Gavin Vaughn, typically a distance swimmer, got second in the 100 breaststroke in 1:18.46 and second in the 100 butterfly in 1:07.61. Ridens also swam the 200 free for the first time and got third in 2:46.34.
"Everybody was kind of out of their comfort zones, so I'm happy with what took place today. I feel like everyone did a really good job," Dragon said.
The relay team of Caudel, Ridens, Todd and Vaughn got third in the 200 free in 1:59.86 and third in the 400 free in 4:45.47.