Platte County officially wrapped up the best season, in terms of success, in the girls’ swimming program history on Saturday, Feb. 20.
The Pirates placed ninth overall in the Class 1 MSHSAA Swimming & Diving Championships at the Rec-Plex Natatorium in suburban St. Louis. Platte County racked up 108 points and had the highest finish among Kansas City area teams.
That comes on the heels of winning a third straight Suburban Conference Blue Division championship earlier this month.
“We wanted to medal a couple of relays and we did that and I can’t believe most of the girls that swam are going home with at least one medal,” Platte County coach Marnie Jenkins said. “What an amazing day.”
The Pirates arrived at the championship event at noon as teams were allowed to arrive in waves due to COVID-19 pandemic protocols. Platte County was among the first handful of teams there but had to wait un- til 3:30 p.m. for the swim- ming portion of the event to begin.
Platte County started out the meet strong – with a pair of school records – and then closed the same way.
In the first race of the day, the 200-yard medley relay, Platte County set a new school record by finishing in 1 minute, 52.87 seconds. The previous mark was 1:54.73.
The team featured se- niors Shannon Banark and Maddie Klippenstein, ju- nior Meredith Ballou and sophomore Drew DeLay.
Banark, a South Dakota signee, followed that up by placing fourth in the 200-yard individual medley (IM) in 2:09.23 – which set a new school record bettering a mark she owned at 2:10.11.
Last year, Banark was seventh in the race – but her fourth place showing was the highest finish in program history – until later in the day.
The Pirates made a big move late in the meet, jumping from 14th place in the team standings to ninth after racking up 39 points in the 100- yard breaststroke. Platte County had four of the 24 state qualifiers in the event and all four earned all-state status.
Banark led the way by placing third overall with a time of 1:07.16 but en- tered with the fastest time at 1:06.26. Clayton’s Kellen Mottl won the race in 1:04.55 – shaving nearly three seconds off her seed time. Seda- lia Sacred Heart’s Camile Schear was the runner-up in 1:05.44.
Following Banark in the standings was Hays (eighth, 1:09.48), DeLay (10th, 1:10.41) and Klip- penstein (12th, 1:11.46). DeLay and Hays swam in the second heat together, while Klippenstein and Banark were in the third heat.
“You know we don’t work on it that much in practice,” Jenkins said. “So I don’t know why they are so good at it.”
Last year, Klippenstein placed ninth and DeLay was 14th in the same event.
Platte County then took seventh place in the 400- yard freestyle relay and that boost gave the team 65 points in the final two events – a good chunk of the Pirates’ 108 points. The 400 team featured Hays, DeLay, Ballou and Banark, which finished in 3:46.16.
“This is the best Platte County has done in high school history for our school and we had some relays place in the top eight, which was awesome,” Klippenstein said. “I think this is the most we have gotten as a team ever. It was fun to be a part of it. We’ve never been close to ninth so to come here and leave our mark is something I will not forget.”
The Pirates just missed an all-state cut in the 200-yard freestyle relay as the team of Hays, Ballou, DeLay and senior Sophia Zimmerman finished in 1:45.96 and took 17th place – a spot away from an honorable mention all-state status. St. Fran- cis Borgia claimed 16th, three-tenths of a second ahead of the Pirates.
In the only other event at state, Hays placed 20th in the 50-yard freestyle.
Platte County took 16th place in the Class 1 standings the past two years – which up until Saturday had been the best finish in the team’s history. A top- 10 finish was the goal, ac- cording to Jenkins.
“I hoped we could and I thought, ‘Ok, this is a goal and maybe we will do it,’” she said. “But to accomplish it, it is so cool. This is a remarkable group of young women.”
The race was the last for Banark, Klippenstein and Zimmerman – part of a senior class of nine that helped build the program up to a top-10 contender.
“It felt good but I don’t think it has sunk in yet,” Banark said of her last race. “It will eventually.”
Jenkins hasn’t quite looked forward to the 2021-22 season, where she will have to replace a pair of four-time state qualifiers in Banark and Klippenstein.
“I can’t even think of that right now,” Jenkins said. “This is one of those once in a lifetime team for me. They are all really close and pushed each other and it has been a great team to coach.”