Jackson Garrett turned in a pair of season-best times, earning a pair of medals over the weekend in the COMO Invitational.
Park Hill South’s star junior finished fifth in the 100-yard backstroke and eighth in the 100 freestyle at Mizzou Aquatic Center in Columbia, Mo. He also swam on two of the Panthers’ three relays to post season-best times.
Park Hill South finished 14th out of 28 schools with 65 points in one of the state’s biggest regular season meets.
In the 100 freestyle, Garrett swam 49.46 seconds in preliminaries to post an automatic qualifying cut for the Class 1 Missouri State Swimming and Diving Championships and then finished eighth in the final. He posted a season-best 54.04 in the 100 backstroke to finish fifth in the A final of that event.
All three of Park Hill South’s relays were in the B final with the 200 freestyle and 200 medley teams posting new best automatic qualifying cuts.
The medley team of Garrett, Patrick Hefferren, Cody Beeler and Isaac Lee swam 1:43.69 in the preliminaries for the Panthers and finished 11th overall. The 200 freestyle relay (Lee, Zach Schneider, Zander Livingston and Isaac Smith) placed ninth with a season-best time of 1:33.89 in the finals.
Currently, all three of Park Hill South’s relays rank in the top eight for Class 1, although the 400 freestyle team has yet to post an automatic qualifying time.
Platte County finished 21st in the final team standings with 27 points. Caden DeLay, a senior, brought home the only top-eight medal for the Pirates. He ended up just off his season-bests in the 100 breaststroke (eighth, 1:02. 07) and 50 freestyle (11th, 22.74).
Two of Platte County’s three relays made the B final. The 200 freestyle was 14th, while the 200 medley was 15th withDeLay, Jerry Orozco, Joe Ragone and Rhett Spell making up both teams.
Park Hill 104, Park Hill South 81
The Trojans won nine of 12 events, including a sweep of the relays, to take the intradistrict dual held Tuesday, Oct. 3 at Park Hill District Aquatic Center in Kansas City, Mo.
Zack O’Conor took both the 200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke for Park Hill while also swimming on two of the relays. Hunter Dieffenbach (100 freestyle) and Nick Dieffenbach (50 freestyle) were also individual winners and parts of two relays.
Garrett won two events for Park Hill South, posting an automatic state qualifying cut in the 200 freestyle (1:48.96) while topping teammate Livingston for first by nearly 5 full seconds. Garrett also won the 100 backstroke.
Belton Pentagular
Platte County easily topped a five-team field, winning eight of 12 events Tuesday, Oct. 3 in Belton, Mo.
Winning two of three relays lifted Platte County while DeLay (50 freestyle, 500 freestyle) and Ragone (200 individual medley, 100 backstroke) won two events apiece. Ryan Dye (100 butterfly) and Baxter Stone (100 breaststroke) were also individual winners for the Pirates.
DeLay, Orozco, Alex Beall and Spell were on Platte County’s winning 200 medley team, while DeLay, Ragone, Beall and Dye closed the meet with a victory in the 400 freestyle.