MHS swimming: Owls claim six state medals

Senior Eden Elfrink finally got his coveted state medal -- two of them, actually -- as a member of the Owls' all-state relay team.
(Chris Allen/Democrat-News)

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Ward walked away with his first medal in an individual event, while Elfrink finally got one as part of the Owls' relay teams. Two school records also fell as Marshall tallied 54 points to finish 15th in the state meet, amidst a line-up of much larger schools.

It was an especially impressive weekend for sophomore Tyler Nichols, who made the "A" finals in both of his solo races and came home with four medals.

Nichols was fifth in the 100-yard butterfly preliminary (53.00 seconds) and broke his own school record in the final (52.70) while coming in sixth. In the 100 breaststroke final (1:01.31), Nichols placed sixth after setting a new personal record with a seventh in the prelim (1:01.29).

Nichols also joined Ward, Elfrink and junior Brock Musick in finishing 11th in the 200-yard medley relay (1:42.45) and 10th in the 200 free relay (1:29.99) relay, the latter in school-record time.

Ward also scored in the 100 fly, reaching the "B" final. He had his best time ever in the prelim (55.11) while placing 15th, but couldn't match that in the final (55.64) and wound up 16th. Ward was 27th out of 44 entries in the 100 free (50.42).

Musick was 16th in the 50 free prelim (22.04) with his fastest time, and stayed in that spot in the "B" final (22.17). He was an alternate to the finals in the 100 free (49.20), coming in 18th.

Rockhurst of Kansas City won seven of the 11 races, including all three relays, to run away with the team title with 400.5 points -- Springfield-Glendale a distant second at 123.5. It was the sixth state championship for the Hawklets.

After placing 10th a year ago, Marshall showed it could weather the loss of all-American Mason Weber and still thrive. Now the challenge is to retool around Nichols and Musick for the next campaign.