ST. PETERS, Mo. -- Taylor Norwood added two more all-state medals to her collection Saturday as the Poplar Bluff senior completed a stellar career.
Norwood picked up her ninth career all-state medal finishing third in the 100-yard butterfly at the MSHSAA Class 2 championship meet at the St. Peters Rec Plex. It was the best finish by a Poplar Bluff swimmer ever while the Mules matched their best finish as a team, tying for 15th place.
"Going all-state all four years made it a great journey," said Norwood who also placed fourth in the individual medley.
"Sad it ends. Sad to be leaving my best friends. I'm going to miss my coaches and the high school atmosphere."
Raegan McAtee won the consolation final to place ninth after missing out on an all-state medal by 0.31 of a second in the butterfly prelims Friday while the 200 medley relay also reached the consolation final.
"They peaked at the right moment," Mules coach Beth Lewis-Muse said. "You couldn't ask for a better ending to the season."
Poplar Bluff tied Park Hill with 44 points for 15th, matching the program's best finish from 2015.
Paige Bradley and Peyton Moore become Poplar Bluff's first divers to compete at state on Saturday morning, missing the first cut.
"I don't know how they do it, they composed themselves so well up on that diving board," Lewis-Muse said.
McAtee had the eighth-fastest time Saturday in the butterfly to win the consolation final at 59.41 seconds, topping Marquette's Amanda Yu, who edge the Poplar Bluff junior in the prelim the previous day.
"I wanted to end it on a good note," McAtee said.
McAtee's prelim time of 59.41 was a personal best after she came in with the ninth-fastest time among a group of 32 swimmers.
"Super proud of Raegan," Norwood said. "I know she wanted to be top eight, she was kind of bummed about that."
Audrey Cisne, Paige Bradley, Norwood and McAtee finished 12th in the medley relay prelim Friday with a time of 1:53.6. It was 3.14 seconds faster than their best time of the season, which ranked 19th coming into the meet. They missed the championship final by 1.28 seconds and ended up 15th in the consolation final Saturday at 1:55.6.
The 400-freestyle relay of Bradley, McAtee, Norwood and Carley Wiseman finished 18th in Friday's prelim at 3:49.82. They missed a team record by 1.14 seconds after breaking 4 minutes just once this season when they qualified by winning the conference title.
McAtee attributed the time drop to the excitement of being at the state meet and credited Wiseman, who swam a 59.88-second leg, which was 4.22 seconds faster than her best time in the individual 100 freestyle.
"We were proud of Carly for breaking a minute," Norwood said. "That was so big to her and for us."
Moore placed 24th in the dive, scoring 143.45 after five attempts, while Bradley was 27th at 136 points. The cut to advance with the top 20 was 150.85.
Lewis-Muse said Bradley's third dive had a lower-than-expected score when it appeared she may have touched the board with her toes.
"I thought they dove really well," Lewis-Muse said.
Norwood finished in the top eight in both of her individual events all four years and added an all-state medal in the medley relay her freshman year.
Norwood had the fifth-fastest prelim time Friday in the 200-individual medley at 2:09.18 and was third in the 100-butterfly prelim at 57.52, missing her team record by 0.21 of a second.
In the IM final Saturday, Norwood was second to Nicole Williams of Rock Bridge at the end of the butterfly and in the top three after the backstroke. Swimming in Lane 2, Norwood kept pace in the breaststroke before finishing strong in the freestyle to place fourth, holding off Eureka sophomore Lily Harrell.
Williams won by 3.89 seconds at 2:03.43.
"Never been a good breaststroker in the IM because you're always tired at that point," Norwood said. "I relied on my front half a lot but I focused on the breaststroke.
"It hurt so bad in the (final) 50, just put my head down and go."
Norwood was third at the halfway point in the 100 butterfly, as Karisa Franz of Cor Jesu Academy led at 25.65, followed by Paige Riekhof of Park Hill South in 27.0 and Norwood at 27.08.
Franz won in 54.36 followed by Riekhof in 56.85 and Norwood at 57.66, about a half second in front of Nixa's Olivia Stoneman.
"I felt really good in the start and my underwater," Norwood said. "I was super happy to be in the top three in that. It was a great swim."
Norwood's previous best finish at state was fifth her freshman year in the butterfly. As a sophomore she finished seventh in both the butterfly and IM while last year she reached the finals to place eighth despite recovering from the flu.
Norwood, who will swim at Maryville University in St. Louis, qualified for state in all events in the same season as a sophomore, the first in the area to accomplish that feat, set team records in six of the eight individual events and helped set all three relay records. She was named MVP of the conference meet all four years, winning all eight of her individual races and six relays while setting conference records in the IM, butterfly, backstroke and two relays.