Warm water to swimmers is like a headwind to runners.
Poplar Bluff senior Taylor Norwood qualified for the MSHSAA state meet in the 500-yard freestyle Monday in the blustery water of the Black River Coliseum Aquatic Center.
"It's every bit of 88 degrees here now," said Norwood after the Mules beat Notre Dame 254-196.
With the water 10 degrees warmer than the pool at the state meet, Norwood said she thought her time might be three to four seconds slower than the qualifying standard of 5 minutes, 30.39 seconds. She asked her coaches to keep track of a 5:25 pace.
"On the sixth lap (of 20) they started going crazy, thinking I'm getting off pace," Norwood said. "I'm like 'oh my gosh, I'm not going to be able to do this, it's so hot.' "
She did, finishing in 5:24.04, then got in line to swim a leg on the 200-freestyle relay, the next race.
Norwood, Audrey Cisne, Paige Bradley and Raegan McAtee won by nearly 22 seconds but their time of 1:50.83 was 3.6 seconds slower than what they swam Saturday, missing a state cut time by 1.24 seconds. The four were also within 0.6 of a second from qualifying for state Saturday in the 200-medley relay.
"I think that we were a little upset that we didn't get our relay cuts at Ladue, but we're going to have so many more meets and we're so close that we're definitely going to get it," said Norwood who won the breaststroke in 1:16.43.
In their first home meet, the Mules won all but one event, sweeping the relays while Norwood, McAtee and Cisne each won a pair of individual events and Bradley won the individual medley.
McAtee earned state consideration times in winning the 200 freestyle in 2:10.53 and the butterfly at 1:04.63. The junior, who finished 33rd in the state prelim in the butterfly last season, missed an automatic state cut by 2.54 seconds.
"I really don't know what we're doing differently," Mules coach Beth Lewis-Muse said of seeing faster times this early in the season.
One theory, Lewis-Muse said, is that having a smaller team allows the coaches to get more time with each swimmer.
A drawback to a smaller team, however, is swimmers having to compete in consecutive events or not being able to specialize in certain strokes.
"We keep telling the girls they can't specialize; they have to be versatile," Lewis-Muse said. "In order for them to be comfortable with any event, we have to swim in it."
Cisne, senior Megan Adams, sophomore Carly Wiseman and freshman Simone Anders opened Monday's meet by winning the 200-medley relay in a state-consideration time of 2:16.03.
Cisne won the backstroke in 1:15.8 after swimming the first leg of the winning 200-freestyle, the previous race.
Bradley won the 200-individual medley by 16.47 seconds at 2:35.89 and finished third in her first-ever 100 breaststroke at 1:22.88. The sophomore started the next event, the 400-freestyle relay, which the Mules won by 27.6 seconds.
Bradley, McAtee, Norwood and Wiseman won the 400 relay, the final event, in 4:21.79, Poplar Bluff's fastest time of the season.
"In the past they would beg to get out (of events)," Lewis-Muse said. "These girls are like, 'no getting out of it, I just have to accept it and swim it.' "
Hailey Grogan was second to McAtee in the 200 freestyle at 2:49.01 while Electra Destree touched the wall 2.67 seconds ahead of Notre Dame's first swimmer for third place. Destree was fifth in the butterfly in 1:45.52 while freshman Austynn Dover followed 3.01 seconds later.
Cisne won the 50 in 29.47, just 0.33 of a second slower than her time Saturday, while Adams (31.02) was third followed by Calli Barker (31.85).
Adams finished second in the 100 freestyle at 1:12.72 while sophomore Bethany Leighty (1:18.64) and Grogan (1:19.2) followed.
Wiseman swam her first 50, finishing fifth, 1.85 seconds behind Notre Dame's Alessandra Rubi who swims for Poplar Bluff's summer AAU team.
Jessica Rush cut nearly 7 seconds from her time from last season in placing fourth in the backstroke after helping her 200-freestyle relay place third.
Barker, Grogan, Adams and Haven Phelps were second behind their teammates in the 200-freestyle relay, beating Rush, Leighty, Destree and Anders, who edged Notre Dame's relay by 0.14 of a second for third.
The Mules have just one more meet, Monday at Southeast Missouri State University against Jackson, before the Christmas break.