Notre Dame, Bell City capture district volleyball crowns

Third-seeded Notre Dame pulled off a pair of upsets and slipped away with the Class 3 District 1 title Tuesday with a 25-19, 23-25, 25-22 victory against host Dexter.

The Bulldogs (20-10-4) cruised past No. 2 Perryville 25-22, 25-9 in the semifinals before taking down the top-seeded Bearcats.

Notre Dame will face the District 2 champion Festus on Saturday at De Soto in the sectional round.

Ashley Nenninger led the Bulldogs with 17 kills in the championship, following a 15-kill performance in the semifinal. Meridith Medlin had 29 assists in the championship and 21 in the semifinal.

Claire Goodson combined for 13 kills on the night, Destiny Dirnberger had 21 digs in the two matches and Haley Bohnert had 20 digs in two matches.

The Bulldogs have now won seven of their last eight matches.

"Since we went to the tournament in Festus [on Oct. 14] we've been rolling pretty good," Notre Dame coach Tara Stroup said.

Class 1 District 2

Bell City claimed its fourth straight Class 1 District 2 title with a 25-10, 25-16 win over Bernie at Advance.

The Cubs will host the sectional tournament on Saturday.

Rachel Spears led the top-seeded Cubs with nine kills and added four aces and three blocks. Megan Slagley had seven kills and eight digs, and sophomore setter Codie Lancaster had 19 assists and seven digs.

"Tonight was a really good all-around team effort," Bell City coach Erin Hoffman said. "Spears makes her force known, but everybody really did their part and played very well tonight. I am really happy with how focused we stayed all night."

Class 4 District 1

Top-seeded Farmington swept No. 5 Jackson 25-9, 25-19 in the semifinals of the Class 4 District 1 tournament.

The Indians finished their season 12-16-1.

Katelyn James led Jackson with four kills, Kelly James had three kills and Chelsea Olson had eight assists.

Central, the sixth seed, fell to No. 2 Sikeston in the other semifinal 22-25, 25-23, 25-22.

Kristin Shirrell had 23 assists for the Tigers (19-15-2). Wendi Zickfield had 10 kills, Carissa Wheeler had nine kills and Melissa Espinoza had 19 digs.

BOYS SWIMMING Lafayete 120, Central 61

The Central boys swim team turned in state-qualifying times in two relay events in a home loss to Lafayette.

Central's 200-meter medley relay team of Sam Gramling, Hunter Givens, Jake Meyer and Peyton Waggener finished in first place with a time of 1:47.31 to make the state cut, while a second place 1:35.28 in the 200 free relay was also good enough to make the state cut.

Central results

200 medley relay -- 1, Central (Gramling, Givens, Meyer, Waggener), 1:47.31.

200 IM -- 1, Gramling (C) 2:15.40.

50 free -- 1, Givens (C) 23.37; 3, Waggener (C) 23.90.

Diving -- 2, Robert Weir (C) 125.85.

100 butterfly -- 2, Givens (C) 59.34.

100 free -- 1, Waggener (C) 52.00

200 free relay -- 2, Central (Gramling, Givens, Meyer, Waggener), 1:35.28.

100 breast -- 3, Matt Holmes (C) 1:16.56.

-- From staff reports