Platte County placed 11th out of 17 teams despite competing without a handful of top contributors Saturday, Sept. 19 in the North Kansas City Invitational. John Cogdill led the way with a pair of top-eight finishes, while the Pirates’ relays struggled, including a DQ for the 200-yard medley quartet. Cogdill placed sixth in the 100 butterfly in 58.26, edging Liberty North’s Joey Trout by .02 of a second, and came in seventh in the 100 breaststroke. His time of 1:04.76 put him exactly 1 second back of sixth place.
Platte County’s Justin Richardson recorded a seventh-place showing in the 1-meter diving competition with a total score of 321.60. He remains the Pirates’ only qualifier for the Missouri State Swimming and Diving Championships.
Caden DeLay also came in top eight for Platte County, finishing the 500 freestyle in 5:32.34 to grab eighth.
Belton Duals
Platte County swept five teams and won nine of 11 events Wednesday, Sept. 16 in Belton, Mo. Nick Kunels led the way in both the 50 freestyle (24.25), which featured Pirates as the top three, while also swimming a leg on the victorious 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays. Nick Corcoran also swam on both of the winning relays.
Platte County’s Josh Richardson took the 100 butterfly title in 1:02.03 and was also on the 200 relay team along Bryce Bearden. That quartet finished in 1:45.55 to win by nearly 16 seconds. In the 500 freestyle, Cogdill lapped the field (5:29.13) to go with his spot on the Pirates’ 200 medley relay, which also included Bailey Shepherd (100 backstroke winner, 1:04.84).
DeLay (200 freestyle) and Jerry Orozco (200 individual medley) rounded out the winners for Platte County.