Martin’s COC title tops Republic’s conference accomplishments

It’s the first season for boys swimming at Republic, so there have naturally been a lot of firsts for the Tigers. But Bryce Martin’s accomplishment at the COC Cham- pionships in Webb City is one that will stick with him. Martin won the 100-yard backstroke to become Republic’s first conference swim champion, finishing two seconds ahead of Joplin’s Jacob Glenn.
“[The backstroke] was one of my main strokes that I tried doing, so [I’ve been] training extra every week and building up for this,” he said. “It was really ... getting what I’ve been training for. It’s really cool.”
The addition of a swim program at Republic was important for everyone in the conference. By becoming the sixth COC team to compete, Repub- lic helped ensure that swimming became an official conference sport for the first time. Because of that, this year’s COC meet was the first official championship for the conference, and every individual event champion set a conference record.
Republic finished fifth overall out of six teams.
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At the Friday Fights swim meet in Springfield, Republic set four season-best
marks. Those best times includ- ed two relays: the 400-yard freestyle and the 200-yard freestyle. The Tigers’ best finish came in the 400. Easton Bruton, Seth Lock, Shael Wilson, and Bryce Martin finished seventh with a time of 3:54.54. That was two seconds better than Republic’s previous best time in the event.
The same four swimmers competed in the 200, shaving .59 sec- onds off their previous best.
Bryce Martin finished eighth in the 200-yard freestyle and finished nearly three seconds ahead of his previous best time, in 2:08.14.
In the 100-yard backstroke, Shael Wilson finished in 1:17.11, bettering his old fastest time by 1.23 seconds.