ST. PETERS, Mo. — The 200-medley relay team for Platte County continued on its historic season by posting yet another school record.
The new superlative came at the MSHSAA Class 1 Swimming & Diving Championships this past weekend at the St. Peters Rec-Plex.
The quartet of senior Lindsey Swindler, juniors Shannon Banark and Maddie Klippenstein and freshman Drew DeLay set the new school record in the prelims on Friday, Feb. 20 with a time of 1 minute, 55.29 seconds.
That gave them a spot in the consolation finals on Saturday, Feb. 21 and the Pirates came in 12th place with a time of 1:56.00, finishing fourth in the ‘B’ finals.
The relay team broke the school record for the event for the third time this season. The group won a conference championship in the event as well.
CODY THORN/Citizen photo
Platte County junior Shannon Banark is doing the backstroke portion of the 200-yard individual medley race, where she finished seventh to earn another all-state medal, on Friday, Feb. 21 in St. Peters, Mo.
“We all worked hard this year and we all put in the work,” Klippenstein said. “We wanted to put our name up there for Lindsey, it was her senior year and we are excited to break it again and let her go out with a broken record. “I guess every single time we broke it, we thought we would do it again. We were all thinking about what we could improve ourself and make a better time for the team.”
The relay was one of two records set by Platte County, while Banark earned a pair of medals on Saturday.
Banark took sixth place in the 100-yard freestyle and added a seventh in the 200-yard IM, just missing a chance to tie the program-best fifth-place finish she set last year in the 50-yard freestyle.
Thanks to the relay finish, Banark now has the top spot in an individual and relay in Platte County history.
“It feels good to have them; I will hold on to them,” Banark said of her medal count so far. “Wear them for graduation maybe.”
Banark didn’t decide to compete in the 100-yard freestyle until taking part in the Lee’s Summit Last Chance meet just two weeks ago.
“I went my 54 (seconds) and was like, ‘I might as well do the 100 free,’” said Banark, who took seventh with a time of 54.53 seconds on Saturday. “It felt good. My legs were dying. I swam better yesterday than today. Other than that, it felt fine.”
Banark took seventh in the 200-yard IM and medaled for the first time after taking ninth as a freshman.
She finished in 2:13.35 in a race that had the state record broken two days in a row. In the prelims on Friday, Incarnate Word’s Ellie Wehremann set the new record in 2:07.45, but lost it in the finals when Nerinx Hall’s Brooke Punnewart won in 2:07.43.
There was one other state record broken on Saturday and that came in the 100-yard breaststroke in the ‘A’ finals where Logan-Rogersville’s Cabrini Johnson won the state championship in 1:03.23.
Two Platte County swimmers were part of that consolation finals in that event.
Klippenstein set a new school record with her time of 1:09.05, which gave her first place in the consolation race and ninth place overall.
It was a trying year for Klippenstein, who missed most of the season after a broken elbow.
She only competed in the home meet and the Suburban Conference Blue Division championship before heading to state.
“It was a little different; in the past I had the whole season to swim (before state) so I was just coming in with ‘let’s just go for it and see what can happen’,” said Klippenstein, who was 12th in the race last year. “I wasn’t sure how long I was going to be out for when it happened. I loved watching the team and cheering for them and watching them to get better when I was out.
“With the circumstances I felt like I did well.”
In that same 100 breaststrokerace, DeLay took 14th place with a time of 1:11.59.
DeLay joined Klippenstein, junior Sophia Zimmerman and Banark on the 200-yard freestyle relay that took 14th in 1:45.94.
Being in St. Peters was nothing new for DeLay, who made many trips to suburban St. Louis to watch her older brother, Caden, compete for Platte County.
It was different being there herself as a competitor.
“Watching him, I never thought about how big it was and whenever I did it, it feels so much more important because it was me doing it,” said DeLay, who left the state meet to go on a 9-hour road trip with her family to watch Caden compete in the Summit League championships. “It was exhilarating and nothing like I have done before. I felt like I left all in the pool. I came here on a business trip and we succeeded.”
All told, the Pirates had the best finish of any Kansas City area team in Class 1, taking 16th place with 53 points, one spot and point ahead of Notre Dame de Sion.