Zizzers swim and dive places third at conference meet

Published 8:41 pm Friday, October 23, 2026

By John Deatherage/For the Quill

West Plains freshman Matthew Stewart takes a breath on his way to winning the 400 freestyle on Sept. 24, at the West Plains Civic Center. Stewart finished in 6:04.92 to help the Zizzers defeat Poplar Bluff 69-46. West Plains won seven of the meet's 12 events. (JOHN DEATHERAGE/FOR THE QUILL)

Despite breaking two conference records, the West Plains Zizzers boys swimming and diving team narrowly missed a third consecutive Ozark Mountain Conference title, finishing third overall.

“It was a back-and-forth meet the entire night,” West Plains Head Coach Ryan Smith said. Logan-Rogersville captured the team title with 249 points, followed closely by Hillcrest with 236 and West Plains with 228.

Tanner Land set a new conference record in the 50-yard freestyle with a first-place time of 23.96. Rhys Kerley also wrote his name in the record books, winning the 500-yard freestyle with a record-setting 5:33.75.

“The boys swam and dove very well at the meet, and hit plenty of personal- and season-best times,” Smith said. “I am very excited for them as they head into the last couple of meets and try to get their times low enough to qualify for the state championships in just under one month.”

First Team (Conference Champions)

50 freestyle: Tanner Land (23.96)
100 butterfly: Alec Morrison (1:00.48)
200 individual medley: Rhys Kerley (2:23.60)
500 freestyle: Rhys Kerley (5:33.75)
Diving: Chance Bradfute (258.70)

Second Team (Silver Medalists)

100 freestyle: Land (54.49)
100 backstroke: Morrison (1:02.54)
200 medley relay: Matthew Stewart, Kerley, Morrison and Bradfute (2:12.21)
400 freestyle relay: Land, Stewart, Dane Kirby and Morrison (4:01.36)

Honorable Mention (Third- through Sixth-Place)

100 freestyle: Stewart, third (1:05.82)
100 backstroke: Stewart, third (1:15.37)
200 freestyle: Kirby, fifth (2:26.43)
500 freestyle: Kirby, third (6:43.50)
200 freestyle relay: Land, Bradfute, Kirby and Kerley, third (1:55.07)

Up Next

The Zizzers were scheduled to compete Friday at the Springfield Invitational. Next week, the team will travel to Springfield for the Southwest Missouri Championships. Diving competition begins at 1 p.m. Thursday, followed by swimming preliminaries at 2 p.m. Friday and championship finals at 10:30 a.m. Oct. 31.