School records fall at swimming championships

Nevada set a school record in the 400-meter freestyle relay at the Southwest Missouri Swimming and Diving Championships Friday in Springfield. From left, Hannah Ketterman, Brittany Braucher, Diedre Stacy and Kristen Badgley teamed up, placing third in the event.

By Joe Warren

Nevada Daily Mail

The Nevada Lady Tiger swimmers concluded team competition this season at the Southwest Missouri Swimming and Diving Championships in Springfield Friday and Saturday.

The Lady Tigers broke two school records at the meet, and finished fifth out of 13 teams in attendance.

The relay team of Hannah Ketterman, Diedre Stacy, Brittany Braucher and Kristen Badgley beat the old school record in the 400-meter freestyle relay by almost three seconds. They set the record in the preliminaries Friday, then took third in the finals Saturday with another time that would have topped the old mark. Their record time was 4:14.52, while the finals time was 4:16.41.

Glendale and Joplin ran away with the top two spots in the relay finals, just as they did in the overall team scores.

Badgley also set the record in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:04.96. It was the third time she set the mark this season. The time was good enough for second place in the meet, .58 seconds behind the winner.

Badgley also placed second in the 100 butterfly.

Other placings at the meet for Nevada were a fifth-place finish in the 200 freestyle relay by the team of Braucher, Ketterman, Stacy and Claire Hissink.

Nevada took sixth in the 200 medley relay with the team of Braucher, Hissink, Ketterman and Badgley.

Stacy placed sixth in the 100 freestyle and eighth in the 50 freestyle.

Hissink took ninth in the 100 breaststroke.

As a team, Nevada scored 111 points, finishing behind only Glendale -- which won the meet --Joplin, Kickapoo and Carthage.

"That's a good placing for a school our size," Nevada coach Dave Ketterman said.

Ketterman also said the school record relay was exciting for the swimmers.

"They're kind of proud of that one," he said.

The only thing left this season is the state meet, which will feature a Nevada swimmer for the first time since 1999.

Badgley has qualified in both the 100 backstroke and 100 butterfly.

"This is kind of a reward time for Kristen," Ketterman said. "It's a great experience for her."