Nevada swimming season ends at state

Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Nevada Tigers swim team members Jake Asberry, Thomas Prewitt, Jesse Claypool, Anthony Franco and Dalton Eador all competed in the 2013 MSHSAA Boys' Swimming and Diving Championships, Friday and Saturday. In just the second year of the team's existence, all five members qualified for the state meet and Jesse Claypool was able to come out of the weekend with an individual All-State honorable mention.

ST. PETERS, Mo. -- The Nevada High School boys' swim team entered the opening day of the 2013 Missouri State High School Activities Association Boys' Swimming and Diving Championships with high hopes, but at the same time, a lot of questions.

Though the Tigers were able to qualify every member of the five-man team for the state meet, in two different events, two of those five swimmers were freshmen. That factor, in itself, left Tigers head coach Ryan Watts far less than certain of what to expect from his 200-yard freestyle relay team.

"I was losing a little sleep about the fact that we were leaving this in the hands of two freshmen," he said.

Watts' concerns and lack of certainty as to how his squad might perform in the relay didn't deter him from entering the state meet with as much confidence in his athletes as he has had all season, however. Despite that confidence, the Tigers were simply unable to keep up with the stiffest competition they've seen all year and ultimately finished 34th in the preliminary standings with a time of 1 minute, 37.34 seconds.

Things were much less uncertain for Watts' only individual qualifier, however, as Jesse Claypool has been competitive in the 100-yard breaststroke throughout this season, as well as his entire career. Claypool entered Friday's action tied with Rock Bridge High School (Columbia) junior Michael Rhodenbaugh for 12th in the seeding order with a time of 1:02.51, putting him right in the thick of things, in terms of his chances to make the finals.

That seed time was the fastest Claypool had ever posted in the event and he was able to better it by nearly 1.2 seconds Friday, but couldn't improve his position and went into the meet's second day as one of eight competitors in the consolation heat. Claypool's preliminary time of 1:01.37 was good for 12th in the order, just 0.81 seconds off the championship heat pace.

Things didn't go quite as well for Claypool on Saturday, as he was unable to repeat his preliminary time, falling off by nearly half a second. His consolation heat time of 1:01.84 was good for 13th place overall, earning Claypool an honorable mention on the 2013 All-State team.

Though both Claypool and Watts would have liked to see Claypool get the chance to compete for the championship, this weekend's performance was enough to complete the list of goals Watts had set for his squad early in the season.

"After the first few weeks of the season -- having a better idea of where we were talent wise -- I set out a list of goals," Watts said. "Some were as simple as work hard, get better and do things 'the Tiger way,' which was my way of saying the right way.

"But at the bottom of my list of goals was to qualify the entire team to state and to qualify Jesse Claypool to the state finals. I am pleased to say, after this weekend, we accomplished all of our goals!"

With the conclusion of the state meet, Watts now has an even greater opportunity to do something he has caught himself doing a number of times already -- looking forward to next season. As the process of moving forward into next year continues, Watts' hopes are even higher than they were this year.

"I am very proud of our team's performance," he said. "They exceeded my expectations and have set the bar very high for next season. I want to thank my team for a great season and look for big things next year from your Nevada boys' swimming Tigers."

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