With two swimmers out due to illness, Poplar Bluff coach Beth Lewis-Muse was scrambling to fill spots prior to Tuesday's meet with Cape Central.
Tigers coach Dayna Powell had no such trouble.
Central won 8 of 11 races, sweeping the relays while five different swimmers won individual events to beat the Mules 101-68 at the Black River Coliseum Aquatic Center.
It was the first time since Jan. 21, 2014 that Poplar Bluff lost a meet with four or fewer teams, a streak of 18 straight wins.
"We don't really talk that much about winning," said Poplar Bluff senior Taylor Norwood who won two events. "Yes we want to win and that's the goal most of the time, but if we get PRs and stuff like that, Coach Lewis is proud of us.
"If we try our hardest she's going to be proud of us, she's not going to get mad at us for not winning a swim meet."
Norwood won the 100-yard breaststroke and the 200 individual medley while Paige Bradley was first to the wall in the 50 freestyle by 0.12 of a second for Poplar Bluff's only wins.
The Mules were simply outnumbered, even before junior Raegan McAtee and senior Megan Adams fell ill.
Lauren Jauch, Grace Sanders, Molly Phegley, Hannah Stempkoviski and Megan Stempkoviski each won events to lead the Tigers, who also took the top two spots in three events.
"It's fun to have that depth doing lineups and relays," Powell said. "It just allows us to do so many more things."
That's part of the reason the Mules have been so successful over the past four years. With an already small roster this season, Lewis-Muse had to rework the lineup earlier in the day.
"I'm almost in a state of panic because it takes so long to figure all these combinations anyway so you don't want to disappoint the girls," Lewis-Muse said of the lineup changes, some of which came from the swimmers themselves.
Jessica Rush volunteered to swim 850 yards total as the sophomore took on the 200 and 500 freestyle events while swimming legs on the 200 and 400 freestyle relays. Rush lowered her time in the 200 by 1.34 seconds for fourth, cut 47 seconds in the 500 for third and helped the Mules place second in both relays.
Simone Anders, Emryn Smith, Electra Destree, Bethany Leighty and Bradley each took on events for the first time this season. Anders, a freshman, moved into the breaststroke leg of the medley relay as Poplar Bluff finished second.
"It's hard having a few swimmers out, even if it's just two," Norwood said. "Makes a big difference in the lineup. Puts more pressure on everybody."
Lewis-Muse said there was not a single complaint.
"We train for this," Lewis-Muse added. "You can't just be so specialized that you can't do anything else.
"This was definitely a time when you had two varsity swimmers gone because of illness, they stepped up and did a really good job."
Bradley beat Megan Stempkovski by the slimmest of margins in the 50 with a time of 26.75 seconds and was third in the butterfly at 1:17.2, her first time swimming the event this season.
Norwood won the individual medley by nearly 32 seconds in 2:19.95 and beat Hannah Stempkovski by 2.58 seconds in the breaststroke at 1:14.26.
Carly Wiseman cut 10.59 seconds in the 500 to place second by just 4.15 seconds in the 20-lap event. The sophomore finished third in the 200 freestyle by just 0.06 of a second.
Audrey Cisne was second in the backstroke just under 3 seconds behind Sanders at 1:15.51 and was fifth in the 200 freestyle at 2:35.32.
Mackenzie Garrett cut nearly 2 seconds in her 100 freestyle, finishing third by just 0.22 of a second and was fourth in the backstroke at 1:25.15.
Garrett, Leighty, Smith and Haven Phelps were fourth in the opening 200-medley relay, finishing 1.13 seconds behind the Tigers for the final points. Cisne, Anders, Norwood and Bradley were second in 2:09.64 as the Tigers won by 4.82 seconds.
Calli Barker, Cisne, Rush and Norwood were second in the 200-freestyle relay at 2:01.61 while Wiseman, Barker, Bradley and Rush were second in the 400 relay at 4:33.11.
"We moved up Simone and (she) is swimming with some of our fastest girls and she's just a freshman," Lewis-Muse said of the changes to the relays. "She handled it really well."
Anders took fourth in the individual medley, swimming the event for the first time, and was fifth in the breaststroke.
Austynn Dover cut 14.59 seconds in her individual medley for sixth at 3:34.85 and was half a second faster in the butterfly. Destree was 2.15 seconds faster in the 200 freestyle for the fifth-fastest time while Madison Moore cut 3.35 seconds off her backstroke time. Morghyn McCain shaved 2.74 seconds off her breaststroke time while Smith earned a point swimming the 50 freestyle for the first time at 31.82, beating a Central swimmer to the wall by 0.24 of a second.
"You can't win if you remain the same, you have to keep striving for improvement," Lewis-Muse said.
The teams will meet again Jan. 18 and Feb. 1 with Notre Dame in the mix at Cape Central as the teams gear up for the Show Me Conference championships Feb. 8.