ST. PETERS, Mo. — Jacob Fickenscher and Alex Dunlevy each earned all-state honors in four different events this past weekend in the 83rd annual MSHSAA State Swimming & Diving Championships at the St. Peters Rec-Plex.
Fickenscher brought home a pair of medals with a top-eight finish in the 200-yard freestyle and 500 freestyle. In the 200 free, the junior finished in 1:46.21 to take seventh place, a big jump from taking 16th in the same race last year.
He broke the school record, previously held by Daniel Spielhagen, in the race.
“It is an awesome feeling,” Fickenscher said. “Its a good represenstation of my hard work and it feels good to have it go toward something.”
In his second individual event, he had his highest finish to date by taking fifth in the 500-yard freestyle in 4:43.91, a five spot jump from his showing last year.
There were four Kansas City area swimmers in the top six in that race, while Park Hill had three of the 32 that made the cut to compete at state.
That makes three medals in his career, who was more at ease back at state this year. The nerves weren’t nearly as plentiful.
“I knew what to expect,” he said. “I was mentally prepared and physically, I was stronger and in better shape and that helped.”
Dunlevy was in the consolation finals in the 200 yard individual medley and the 100 butterfly, placing 11th and 12th, respectively.
Dunlevy took 14th in the 200 IM last fall.
CODY THORN/Citizen photo
Park Hill’s Eli Stammler, left, competes in the breaststroke event at the MSHSAA Swimming Championships on Friday, Nov. 15 in St. Peters, Mo.
The duo also were part of two relay teams that earned all-state honors for the second year in a row.
Dunlevy, Fickenscher and juniors Daniel Powell and Sam Brook took 13th in the 200 freestyle in 1:33.76. Last year, Dunlevy and Fickenscher were on a team placed fourth with the Dieffenbach brothers, Hunter and Nick, who were 2019 PHHS graduates.
Dunlevy was the lone holdover from the 400 freestyle relay from last year that took fifth place. He joined Fickenscher, Brook and sophomore Eli Stammler this year, placing 14th in 3:24.61.
“I’m hoping to go to college in swimming and I feel like I did very well in those events,” Dunlevy said of being a four-time all-stater again. “Hopefully it will translate into college coaches noticing. I haven’t got many offers now. It is extremely hard to get noticed. You have to be really good and I’m not on the level as much as other people so I have to really reach out to different schools and coaches.”
With his senior season now over, Dunlevy will compete with his club team, the KC Blazers, and continue the recruiting process. His ultimately goal is to land a Division I school, either as a preferred walk-on or earning a scholarship.
The only other all-state event for Park Hill came early Saturday morning.
Junior Aden Roberson competed in the diving competition and took 12th place with a score of 367.15 points.
The Trojans had a handful of other events at the state competition.
Brook was 31st in the 100 backstroke and 32nd in the 200 freestyle, while Stammler and senior Brandon Murguia swam in the 500 freestyle with Fickenscher, placing 26th and 27th, respectively.
Stammler was 29th in the 100 butterfly, while the 200 medley relay of junior Daniel Powell, Stammler, Murguia and Roberson was 27th.
The Trojans took 14th place with 55 points and was one of eight teams from the Kansas City area in the top 20 in the team standings. Rockhurst (second) and Lee’s Summit North (fourth) each brought home trophies, while divisional foes Lee’s Summit West was sixth and Blue Springs finished 16th.
“I’m proud of how we did and how hard we worked,” Dunlevy said. “I feel like we put in the work and we got the return. We did really well. I’m happy with how we persevered through the season. It means a lot to have success toward the end of the season.”