WEBB CITY — For the first time in program history, the Carthage Tigers captured the team crown at the Central Ozark Conference Swimming and Diving Championships.
Led by three event wins, along with a strong finish to the night, the Tigers finished with 287 points on Tuesday night inside the Buck Miner Swim Center.
"This is our first conference championship in school history, so we're pretty excited," Carthage coach Braden McBride said. "This is just a great group of young men. We have 20 guys on the team and nearly all of them scored a point tonight. We thought this was a possibility, so we're really happy." 
The Tigers, who won the team title this year after settling for second last season, definitely finished the meet on a high note. 
Leading in the standings after 11 events, Carthage won the final event of the night, the 400-yard freestyle relay. And the team of Braxton McBride, Eli Cox, Kellen Frieling and Will Wright set a new meet record in the event with a time of 3 minutes, 33 seconds.
For the Tigers, it was a final exclamation point on a historic night. 
"They got really up for that last event, and I know they're excited," Coach McBride said. "This has been one of the funnest years I've ever had coaching. They're just a great group of guys who like hanging out with each other. We talk about how we're the swim family, not the swim team. That really showed tonight. Everybody really stepped up. It was just a really good night."   
Webb City was second in the team standings with 234 points and Joplin was third with 193.
The Cardinals were attempting to three-peat as COC champs, but the hosts settled for the runner-up plaque this season.
"You don't ever want to lose a title you won the year before, but Carthage is absolutely loaded this year," Cardinals coach Shawn Klosterman said. "We knew it would be tough. They out-powered us in a lot of ways, but my guys swam absolutely amazing tonight." 
Joplin coach Aaron Stump noted he was pleased with his team's showing.
"For a team with just nine guys, we did exceptionally well," Stump said. "To take third against teams that are twice our size in numbers, and that have diving, I couldn't be happier with how we performed. As a whole, we have a strong group. We only have one senior, so we'll be back."
Rounding out the team standings were Ozark (168), Nixa (167) and Republic (42).
CARTHAGE HIGHLIGHTS
The Tigers won three events. Carthage had a top-four finish in 11 of the 12 events, as the team has no divers.
In addition to the victory in the 400 freestyle relay, Carthage's 200-yard medley relay team of Frieling, McBride, Wright and Cox took first with a time of 1:46.
A sophomore, McBride won the 50-yard freestyle in 23.63 seconds and also placed third in the 100 free (52.54).
A junior, Frieling was the runner-up in both the 200 freestyle (1:55) and the 100 backstroke (57.54).
Third-place finishers for the Tigers were Cox (100 butterfly), Wright (500 free) and Maveric Allphin (100 breaststroke). Taking fourth in their events were Wright (200 IM) and Wallace (500 free). 
The Tigers were also fourth in the 200 freestyle relay, with Allphin, Trey Nye, Daryl Martin and Wallace competing.
Wallace was fifth in the 200 IM, while finishing sixth in their respective events were Landon White (100 fly), Cox (100 back) and Ryan Steinbach (100 breaststroke).
Noah Blackford finished seventh in the 100 backstroke and Carter Yost placed seventh in the 100 breaststroke.
"We score a lot of points in events that nobody really wants to swim, the 500 free, the IM and the fly," Coach McBride said. "We scored four people in the top 12 in all three of those events. That's really big. And we have a good mix of the different strokes. We have four seniors (Cox, Nye, Wallace, White) this year, and they score a lot of points and they're good leaders. They're very important to our success this year."
-In part, Jason Peake, SoMo Sports