Badgley wins Carthage pentathlon

CARTHAGE, Mo. -- Nevada High School sophomore Kristen Badgley qualified for state in a fourth swimming event while winning the individual title at the Cathage Pentathlon Thursday.

Badgley, who is only allowed to compete in two events at the state swimming championships in May, will have her choice of the 100-yard backstroke, 100 butterfly, 100 freestyle and now the 200 individual medley, after swimming a qualifying 2 minutes, 21.45 seconds in the IM Thursday.

The pentathlon took the combined times from five events to calculate the overall standings.

Badgley won the 200 IM, the 100 butterfly and the 100 backstroke at the event. She was also second in the 100 freestyle and ninth in the 100 breaststroke out of at least 60 contestants in each race.

She finished with a combined time of 6:51.13, winning by more than five seconds. Only one other swimmer broke seven minutes.

In qualifying for state, Badgley also set the school record in the 200 IM, adding to her marks in the butterfly and backstroke.

As a team, Nevada finished tied for third out of five schools.

Carthage won the event with 88 points, while Joplin took second with 66.

Ozark, Mo. and Nevada each had 35, followed by Lamar with nine points.

Joining Badgley in competing in the entire pentathlon for Nevada were Claire Hissink, Lindsey Webb, Abby Ruddick and Emily Ricketts.

Hissink placed 15th overall, while Webb was 16th.

Ruddick took 22nd and Ricketts 27th.

Besides Badgley, no other Nevada swimmers finished in the top 10 in any single event.