Park Hill South’s 200-yard freestyle relay team of Jacob Duckworth, Roman Lewis, Matt Henderson and Drew Franklin came in first place at the COMO Invite on Sept. 30.
COLUMBIA – It was an action-packed weekend of swimming at the COMO Invitational as Park Hill South came away with a first-place finish and Platte County broke multiple school records at the Mizzou Aquatic Center on Sept. 30.
The finish for first place was tight; there were four schools that finished within 7.5 points of each other. Chaminade College Prep and St. Louis University tied for third place with 218 points, trailing Parkway Central’s 222 points and Park Hill South’s 225.5 points.
The Panthers were sitting in third place with 198.5 points when the swimming portion came to an end, having diving left. Park Hill South had a trio of divers close out the top-10 – Grant Carpenter, Arteyu McCauley and Cooper McQueen – to help pull out the overall victory.
Jacob Duckworth was a big factor with a pair of top-5 finishes in individual races and both the relays he competed in finished in the top-4. The senior claimed second place in 100-yard breaststroke in 57.72 seconds and fifth place in the 50-yard freestyle in 21.18 seconds.
Park Hill South won the 200-yard freestyle relay in 1:25.75 filled out with Roman Lewis, Matt Henderson and Drew Franklin. Duckworth was also joined by Gentry Comstock, Jack Francis-Cummings and Alex Briggs to earn fourth place in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:36.38.
Park Hill South had another relay team bring home a second-place finish. Comstock, Briggs, Henderson and Lewis ended the 400-yard freestyle in 3:10.41.
Lewis finished in fourth place in the 100-yard freestyle in 47.23 seconds, while Comstock was four spots and 0.57 seconds behind him. Briggs earned third place in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 51.83 seconds.
Platte County didn’t have as much success in the standings as Park Hill South did, but it did make program history on the weekend. Deacon Gutshall set two program records – that he had previously set – at the COMO Invitational.
Gutshall set the record in the 500-yard freestyle in 4:45.96, earning fifth place in the event. He also broke the 200-yard freestyle record in his sixth-place finish with a time of 1:45.77.
Platte County junior Palmer Keith finished in sixth place in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 1:57.26. He also took 13th place in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:01.01.