The Park Hill South Lady Panthers’ swim and dive team did just enough on day two of state to claim the third-place trophy at the Missouri Class 2 Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships on Saturday, Feb. 19, at the St. Peters Rec-Plex.
South edged Kirkwood High School by a single point for the third-place trophy that came down to the day’s final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay. South - seeded fifth in the consolation race - needed to finish in at least second place to beat out Kirkwood whose team was swimming in the championship finals, also seeded fifth.
“I knew going in that it would be hard for Kirkwood to get first place in the relay and we knew if they stayed second and we stayed second in the consolation heat that we were perfectly fine,” South Head Coach Tim Busenhart said. “I told the girls to do safe starts because we can race in the pool. As long as we were pretty comfortable with staying second and didn’t DQ (disqualify) we were going to end up in third place.”
South had a slight lead through much of the race but was caught at the very end by Parkway South by 0.03 seconds to win the consolation final. South’s team then watched the championship round to see if Kirkwood could pull off the upset, which they didn’t, giving the third-place trophy to the Lady Panthers.
South also got a big-time effort from its diving team. South tied for the lead with four competitors qualifying for the state tournament in the 32-diver field. All four divers scored points for the team by making it to the finals and two divers, Brooke Robbins (fourth place) and Megan Wells (eighth place) earned medals.
“They are a big part of our program and giving us 36 points straight off the bat is a huge advantage when you look at the other teams in the top five. It makes a huge difference when it comes to the final place for your team. None of them are seniors yet, so we’ve still got more years with them,” Busenhart said.
Busenhart said his team had a less than stellar day one of swimming, but South was able to do enough to give the team some opportunities to score on Saturday. Busenhart said the team’s most impressive finish on Saturday was in the 50-yard freestyle consolation race.
Freshman Charlotte Sander’s time in the preliminary round was good enough for 15th place, which Sander turned into a consolation win (ninth overall). Fellow freshman Natalie Dunaway also quailed one spot ahead of Sander and moved up two spots to 12, giving South two more points.
Park Hill South Senior Madi McNearney, above, helped the Panthers finish in third place at state when she scored for South in the 100-yard backstroke and the 200-yard medley relay.
“We had one girl go from 15th to ninth place and that was big for us. You’ve got to take advantage of things that happen to other teams that fell in our place, and we got a chance to move up to third place,” Busenhart said.
Senior Sydney Staebell - an already highly decorated swimmer - saw the medal stand twice in individual events and helped South score points in relays. Staebell finished seventh in the 200-yard individual medley (IM) with a time of 2:10.78 before finishing sixth in the 100-yard butterfly event with a time of 58.98.
Also finding the medal stand for South in individual events included senior Lola Reuscher who finished seventh in the 50-yard freestyle event with a time of 24.83 and freshman Molly Henry who finished eighth in the 100-yard butterfly event with a time of 59.70. South also got consolation round points from Reuscher in the 100-yard freestyle event along with teammate, Dunaway, in the same event.
Senior Madi McNearney scored for South in the 100-yard backstroke and sophomore Alyssa Gordon scored in the 100-yard breaststroke. All three relay teams scored points for South including the 200-yard medley and 200-yard freestyle teams which earned medals.
The 200-yard medley team of McNearney, Gordon, Staebell, and Sander finished sixth. The 200-yard freestyle team of Reuscher, freshman Hannah Petersen, Sander, and Dunaway finished fifth.
“Had some up and down swims but I’m really proud of my girls and how they came back today. I didn’t even let them know until about halfway through the meet that they were able to get a trophy and they just stepped up,” Busenhart said.
Lady Trojans
Park Hill participated in a handful of events but only one of the swimmers was able to advance past day one of the competition. Freshman Emma Owen finished 15th in the 500-yard freestyle event with a time of 5:28.40.
Senior Arielle Janssens competed in the 200 IM and finished 30th overall with a time of 2:21.07. The senior also competed in the 500-yard freestyle event and finished 24th with a time of 5:31.50.
Freshman Ava Hughbanks swam in the 100-yard butterfly event and finished 29th with a time of 1:02.92. The Lady Trojans had all three relay teams qualify for state, starting with the 200-yard medley team of senior Elaina Ginest, senior Grace Hagner, Hughbanks, and senior Leila Kramer which finished 26th with a time of 1:59.96.
The 200-yard freestyle team of sophomore Avery Whalen, Kramer, Hagner, and Janssens finished 23rd with a time of 1:46.46. The 400-yard freestyle relay team of Janssens, Kramer, Owen, and Hughbanks finished 22nd with a time of 3:52.78.