Reichard takes seventh at state

ST. PETERS, Mo. -- The Nevada Lady Tigers swim team and senior Grace Reichard entered the 2014 Missouri State High School Activities Association Girls' Swimming and Diving Championships with high hopes.

Though Reichard had made the state qualification cut in six events, she chose to simply focus on three of those events -- the 100-yard freestyle, 100-yard breaststroke and the 200-yard freestyle relay. The relay was the last event in which Reichard made the state cut, as the Lady Tigers needed the district meet to shave off enough time in that event to qualify.

The 100 breaststroke was Reichard's best event all season long and such was the case again at the state meet, as it was the only event in which she reached Saturday's championship heat. She did make it to Saturday in the 100 freestyle, but was relegated to the consolation heat in that event.

In the breaststroke, Reichard finished seventh in the championship heat with a time of 1 minute, 8.7 seconds. State Champion Corinne Rinne, Blue Springs, finished in 1:05.73.

In the 100 freestyle, Reichard missed the championship heat by near 7/10 of a second and ultimately finished 12th overall -- fourth in the consolation heat -- with a time of 53.98.

Things didn't go nearly as well for the Lady Tigers in the 200 freestyle relay, as they were unable to make it out of Friday's preliminary round. By the time all was said and done, the Lady Tigers finished 33rd out of 40 teams in that event with a time of 1:46.71.