Lady Tiger swimmers take two of three

By Joe Warren

Nevada Daily Mail

The Nevada Lady Tigers beat two out of three teams in a quadrangular in Springfield Tuesday, topping Carthage and Hillcrest and losing to powerful Glendale.

Nevada coach Dave Ketterman said the wins over Hillcrest and Carthage were good for the team.

"Carthage was down about four swimmers, but we'll take the win," Ketterman said.

Nevada beat Carthage 96-67, and they topped Hillcrest 114-51. The Lady Tigers were humbled by Glendale though, 118-62.

"We just will never have enough swimmers to beat Glendale," Ketterman said.

Nevada had three individual wins in the meet, as freshman Kristen Badgley again won both the 100-yard butterfly and 100 backstroke and senior Deidre Stacy took the 50 freestyle.

For Badgley, it was the second time in two meets that she has swept both events, only this time she had a state qualifying time in the butterfly, swimming it in 1 minute 4.38 seconds. The state qualifying mark is 1:05.09.

"It's good for us and especially or Kristen," Ketterman said. "She'll get to make the trip to St. Louis on May 20 (for the state championships)."

Badgley was the only swimmer to qualify for state as an individual Tuesday. Glendale did have a state qualifying time in the 200 Medley Relay and they had a diver qualify as well.

Ketterman said that Badgley could also qualify in the backstroke.

"She may be a better backstroker than the butterfly," he said.

He said the problem so far is that Badgley has not been able to practice the event much during team workouts.

Stacy also had a good day in the pool. Not only did she get her first individual win of the year, she finished second in the 100 freestyle.

Other individual placings included a third-place finish by freshman Lindsey Webb in the 100 breaststroke and a third by sophomore Claire Hissink in the 50 freestyle.

Hissing also finished fourth in the 100 breaststroke and Webb was fourth in the 100 freestyle.

Freshman Abby Ruddick was fourth in the 200 freestyle even though it was the first time she had competed in the event.

Senior Laura Lovinger was fourth in the 500 freestyle and senior Brittany Braucher placed fourth in the 200 Individual Medley.

As a team the Lady Tigers finished second in the 200 medley, finishing behind the state-qualifying team from Glendale.

Hannah Ketterman teamed with Webb, Badgley and Braucher in the medley.

The Lady Tigers then placed third in both the 200 and 400 freestyle relays.

"Our medley relay swam well," Ketterman said. "The two freestyle relays, I think, bettered their times in both of those events."

Nevada will have plenty of time to prepare for their next meet. They do not compete again until April 15 when they swim in the Carthage Invitational.