Winning conference titles has become a yearly occurrence for the Platte County girls’ swimming team who captured its first one in the White Division on Feb. 4.
The Lady Pirates are in the Kansas City Suburban Conference – which switched divisions this past year – as they have won conference for five consecutive seasons. Platte County came out with nearly 100 more points than the next team at Gladstone Community Center as it scored 559 points and Grain Valley ended in second place with 469 points.
Brooklynn Hays had a flawless outing, finishing in first place in every event she competed in; two individual events and two relays. Hays completed the 200-yard freestyle in 1:59.22 and ended the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:08.25.
Hays was also the anchor in the 200-yard freestyle relay and the 200-yard medley relay that finished with times of 1:44.99 and 1:57.1, respectively. Drew DeLay was on both relays with Madeline Judy and Lauren Beatty being on the freestyle relay and Madeline Stone and Ireland Shank being on the medley relay.
Stone, Shank and Ashleigh Cruce finished from third to fifth places in the 200-yard individual medley. Stone ended in 2:31.43, Shank finished in 2:31.43 and Cruce completed the race with a time of 2:32.12.
DeLay was the runner-up in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:12.46 and the runner-up in the 50-yard freestyle in 26.76 seconds, where she was followed by Beatty and Judy in 27.33 and 27.73 seconds, respectively. Shank and Cruce finished in second and third places with times of 1:07.48 and 1:09.52, respectively, in the 100-yard butterfly.
The Lady Pirates had three of the top-6 finishers in the 100-yard freestyle, led by Beatty in third place with a time of 59.61 seconds. Judy and Jayden Benninghoff ended in back-to-back spots to close out the top-6.
Samantha Teufel and Adelaide Bonsignore ended in fourth and fifth places, respectively, in the 500-yard freestyle. In the 100-yard backstroke, Stone and Benninghoff claimed third and fourth places, respectively.
Platte County closed out the conference swimming meet with a second-place finish in the 400-yard freestyle. The team of Beatty, Benninghoff, Judy and Shank completed the race in 4:05.99.