The Class 2 Girls’ State Swimming and Diving Championship was one for the ages as Park Hill South was crowned as the runner-up – which is the best finish in program history – at St. Peters Rec-Plex on Feb. 17.
Park Hill South has been on the rise in recent years, taking third place in 2022 and sixth place in 2021 before securing a second place finish this go-round. This was the 12th time since 2008 that the Lady Panthers ended in the top-10 at state.
Freshman Lizzie Landuyt had success both as an individual and on relays, starting with a sixth-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke in 58.15 seconds. Ruby Livingston wrapped up her Lady Panther career on the weekend and was in 20th place in 1:02.92 in the same event.
Park Hill South took top-5 on its first relay team, the 200-yard medley, after a fourth-place finish in prelims. Landuyt, Alyssa Gordon, Molly Henry and Hannah Peterson completed the final race in 1:49.19.
The Park Hill South girls’ swimming and diving team poses for a picture after finishing with a program best second place at the Class 2 State Meet at St. Peters Rec-Plex on Feb. 17.
Landuyt and Henry were joined by sophomores Charlotte Sander and Natalie Dunaway in the 400-yard freestyle relay. Those girls earned ninth place with a time of 3:37.87.
Gordon went on to claim fifth place in an individual event as well – the 100-yard breaststroke – when the junior ended in 1:05.73, which was nearly an entire second faster than her prelim time. She went on to take 12th place in the 200-yard IM in 2:12.26, followed by Landuyt in 15th place with a time of 2:13.5.
Diving was a huge part of Park Hill South’s best ever finish at state as Megan Wells took first place with a score of 268.5 and Brooke Robbins took second place with a score of 261.35. Senior Madelyn Stephens ended in 11th place with 243.95 points.
The Lady Panthers had some success in the 50-yard freestyle with Dunaway taking third place in 24.21 seconds and Sander collecting fifth place in 24.44 seconds. Henry finished in ninth place in the 100-yard butterfly in 59.3 seconds.
Sander, Gordon, Peterson and Dunaway finished in second place in the 200-yard freestyle in 1:38.35, which was only 1.26 seconds behind first place MICDS. Park Hill South ended the weekend with 202 points total, only trailing Parkway South who won Class 2 with 238 points.
Park Hill had seven swimmers make the trip to state, but none made it past prelims to the finals. The Lady Trojans’ 200-yard medley relay team of Karis Barton, Alysa Schelber, Ava Hughbanks and Avery Whalen didn’t quite make it to the finals but finished in 25th place in prelims with a time of 1:59.68.
Hughbanks qualified in the 100-yard butterfly and took 26th place in prelims with a time of 1:02.03 before finishing in the same spot in prelims of the 100-yard backstroke in 1:04.15. Barton finished one place better than Hughbanks with a time of 1:04.12.
Avery Whalen and Rosie Momino led the 23rd place 400-yard freestyle relay team that finished in 3:56.56 in prelims. Barton and Hughbanks were also on that relay team.