Eight members of the Poplar Bluff Piranhas swim team qualified Saturday at R.W. Huntington Pool in Poplar Bluff for the 2018 AAU Junior Olympics.
Teagan Kassing, 10, led the Piranhas by qualifying in five events while Keona Sample, Paige Bradley and Kiera Willis all qualified in four events.
Kassing won two of those five events. He was first in the 50-meter butterfly in 53.66 seconds and in the 100 freestyle in 1 minute, 30.85 seconds. He took second in the other three. He finished the 50 backstroke in 51.48, the 50 breaststroke in 1:00.12 and the 50 free in 43.97.
"I did good, felt good," said Kassing, who would like to finish in at least the top 16 at the Junior Olympics after finishing 18th last year. "It's my second year going to Junior Olympics and it fels good for me to go because I hadn't ever gone before (last year)."
Sample, 12, essentially qualified for each stroke used in the individual medley, by placing in free, butterfly, breaststroke and backstroke.
She won all but the 200 free, where she took second in 3:04.90. Sample won the 100 breaststroke in 1:44.71 and the 100 backstroke in 52.93. In her shortest event, she won the 50 butterfly in 41.88.
It was a busy morning for Sample, who has now qualified for the Junior Olympics five straight years and every year she's competed, as all five of her events were packed within the first 30 events of the day.
"Not the best I could do, but I am still proud of myself," Sample said. "All my races were back-to-back, so I didn't get any break. But I'm still proud of myself. I did well."
Despite five years of success, Sample said she still gets nervous on the block.
"You just have adrenaline going through you and you want to do good and beat your seed time," she said.
Kiera Willis, 10, won her longest distance race and qualified for the Junior Olympics in the 100 backstroke in 2:14.94. She qualified and took second in the 50 breaststroke (1:23.62) and the 50 backstroke (57.49). Willis finished third in the 50 free, but still qualified for Junior Olympics with a time of 54.71.
Bradley, 16, won all four of the events she qualified in. She took the 200 freestyle (2:44.03) and the 200 individual medley (3:07.50) as well as the 100 free (1:12.50) and the 50 free (30.48), making her and Sample both qualifiers in three different distances.
Madison Pennington, 13, qualified in three events. She took second in the 100 free (1:21.97) and the 100 breaststroke (2:06.60) while finishing fourth in the 11 backstroke (1:43.08).
Bethany Leighty, 16, took second after Bradley in the 200 free and qualified with a time of 3:02.87.
Sophie Jenning, 8, was Poplar Bluff's youngest qualifier after finishing second in the 50 backstroke in 1:50.80.
Gavin Vaughn, 15, won the 200 individual medley and qualified in 2:53.88.
While he didn't qualify for the Junior Olympics, Christian Todd had one of the highlights of the day in his problematic race in the 13-14-year-olds 100 freestyle.
Todd's goggles feel around his neck the moment he dived in the water. His eyes were hurting from too much chlorine, so in the moment he decided to swim with his head above water the entire race.
"I did my flip turn, which was really hard, because I couldn't see where the wall was. I got too close to the wall and I did it, but I still made it," Todd said.
On the return trip, he thought about switching strokes for a little bit to give his violently swinging arms a break, but he wasn't sure if that broke the rules. He asked after the race if you can, in fact, us any stroke during a freestyle race and found out you can.
"I probably would have done breast stroke, just for a little bit, just to rest my arms because I was so tired," Todd said. "I was so happy I (still won the heat) because that is a story you can tell forever.
"I was so tired because keeping your head above water is so hard. Luckily it was just a 100. When I got to the wall I was so out of breath."