Kimmell's big night boosts NHS at Conf. Championships

Sometimes it’s not about how you dive, but when.

Case in point: Nevada High School’s Laura Kimmell, who after competing in the mornings for every diving event this season got her chance at an evening dip at the Big 8 Conference Championship last week in Monett — and made it count.

“Normally divers go in the morning, so when they’re used to practicing in the evening it’s just a different feel for them. But this happened to be an evening dive,” said NHS head coach Samantha Short, whose junior diver racked up a score of 344.40 on her way to a first-place finish in the 1-meter diving event. “She just came out and hit some of her harder dives.”

Kimmell’s performance helped the Lady Tigers earn their fourth-straight second-place finish in the team competition. Monett used its home-pool advantage to rack up 361 points, good enough for first place. Nevada finished with 271 points, followed by Logan-Rogersville (233), Lamar (205) and Marshfield (105).

While some of Nevada’s athletes benefited from the Big 8’s unusual scheduling, others suffered.

Emma Leisure, for example, is one of the team’s few ranked swimmers but had to compete in back-to-back-to-back swimming events. Fortunately, she was still able to finish third in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:15.14 and third in the 100-yard butterfly (1:09.33).

“She told me, ‘Please don’t ever do that to me again,’” Short said of Leisure, whose feet were still standing on her block while her competitors’ hands were hitting the water in one of the events, thanks to a misfiring starting gun. “But she still came back.”

Teammate Avery Morris finished just ahead of Leisure in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:12.68, good enough for second place.

Leisure was also part of Nevada’s 200-yard freestyle relay team, along with Abbi Baldwin, Hadley Fletchall and Chloe Morris, whose time of 1:55.58 earned them a third-place finish. They also finished fourth in the 200-yard relay (2:11.13).

Delaney Hope, Avery Morris, Luxy Pearce and Anna Ashby took home third in the 400-yard freestyle relay (4:37.73).

Chloe Morris placed third in the 500-yard freestyle (6:41.86).

Avery Morris finished fourth in the 200-yard individual medley (2:47.37).

Next up for the Lady Tigers will be the SWMO Swim and Dive Championships Friday and Saturday in Springfield — where the diving event will be back in its normal start time: the morning.

Rounding out Nevada’s results from the Big 8 Championship:

• 50-yard freestyle — Chloe Morris, fifth (28.59); Hope, seventh (29.74); Bella Brooks, 13th (33.90); Camryn Warner, 14th (34.10)

• 200-yard freestyle — Hope, sixth (2:37.58); Ashby, ninth (2:51.87); Reese Hedges, 12th (3:10.23); Chloe Green, 13th (3:10.76)

• 200-yard I.M. — Avery Ogle, seventh (3:12.16); Pearce, eighth (3:12.70); Lauren Bloom, 12th (3:23.40)

• 100-yard butterfly — Abbi Baldwin, sixth (1:19.27); Ashby, 11th (1:39.16)

• 100-yard freestyle — Fletchall, sixth (1:07.56); Emma Cornett, 13th (1:30.64); Katie Pennington, 14th (1:32.95)

• 100-yard backstroke — Pearce, fifth (1:20.18); Bloom, seventh (1:26.80)

• 100-yard breaststroke — Baldwin, fifth (1:25.59); Warner, seventh (1:28.30); Fletchall, eighth (1:28.30); Ogle, 10th (1:33.99)

• 500-yard freestyle — Bella Brooks, ninth (8:34.17); Green, 10th (8:56.84); Susannah Kimmell, 11th (9:14.93)

• 1-meter diving — Rylinn Miller, fifth (255.05)