Poplar Bluff girls swimming dove right into its first home meet and racked up the wins.
Out of 12 events at the Black River Coliseum on Monday, the Mules won eight of them. As the wins piled up, a deep Poplar Bluff squad finished first in the team standings with 402 points, 109 above Notre Dame, which finished second.
"I think there's a bigger sense of pride when you're in your own home pool, and that just amps the motivation and the adrenaline for these girls," coach Beth Lewis-Muse said. "And the crowd, I think the crowd was the largest we've seen in some time."
The relay team of Audrey Cisne, Simone Anders, Carly Wiseman and Olivia Kirkman got the day started with a win in the 200-yard medley relay, finishing with a time of 2 minutes, 11.42 seconds, .46 seconds ahead of Notre Dame.
Senior Raegan McAtee secured the first individual win for the Mules with a first-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle by clocking a time of 26.67, less than half a second ahead of Olivia Florino of West Plains. Kirkman and Bethany Leighty also secured points for Poplar Bluff. Kirkman finished third at 28.42, and Leighty's 32.29 placed eighth.
"We always talk about concentrating on the middle man," Lewis-Muse said. "It's not necessarily that one that's always going to score the first or second place. It's that one that's going to score fifth, sixth or seventh. It looks to me that we're very, very solid in that area. We're only going to get better from that and it's only going to help develop more up top."
Paige Bradley and Wiseman kept piling on the points in the 100-yard butterfly. Bradley secured first place with a time of 1:11.61. Wiseman finished second at 1:20.57. Calli Barker added nine points to her team's tally with a time of 1:26.52.
Kirkman made it four wins in five events for the Mules when she swam a time of 1:02.99 in the 100-yard freestyle. Morghyn McCain and Anders finished third and fourth with respective times of 1:08.78 and 1:10.59.
A large portion of points for Poplar Bluff came from the 200-yard freestyle relay. The three Mules teams occupied first, second and third to gather 66 points. The team of Bradley, Kirkman, Cisne and McAtee took the top spot, turning in a time of 1:50.35.
"I felt like our team did really well. We had a lot of girls swim new events today and they all did really well in them," McAtee said. "I did OK, I guess. I think we're all just pretty proud of everybody for finishing their events."
McAtee and Cisne took the top two spots in the 100-yard backstroke to add to an already impressive day. McAtee earned first with a time of 1:11.08, and Cisne clocked 1:15.55. Jessica Rush also earned points in the event with a 1:22.17 for seventh.
In the 100-yard breaststroke, Bradley, Anders and Kirkman took the top three spots for 35 more points toward their teams tally. Bradley finished first with a time of 1:21.19, Anders locked down second place at 1:24.04 and Kirkman clocked 1:29.00.
Bradley, Leighty, Mackenzie Garrett and McAtee finished the day off by earning the first-place spot in the 400-yard freestyle relay, turning in a time of 4:24.44.
Poplar Bluff's depth paid dividends in the team standings as the Mules won by a comfortable margin.
"It really helps to have a bigger team so it just helps to get that competitiveness for the spot, so it helps the girls. You know, it's exciting if you get to swim an event at the meet. It's good to have a bigger team. It's a lot more encouragement, too," McAtee said.