Platte County, Park Hill and Park Hill South will be well represented at the MSHSAA Swimming and Diving Championships in St. Peters.
Competition at the St. Peters Rec-Plex starts on Thursday, Feb. 20 with Class 1 (Platte County) and wraps up Friday, Feb. 21 for Class 1, before prelims for Class 2 on Friday and the finals on Saturday, Feb. 22.
The Pirates will have two swimmers competing in the max four events. Junior Shannon Banark will be in the 200-yard individual medley, 100-yard freestyle and on the 200 medley and freestyle relays. Freshman Drew DeLay will be in the 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke and will also be on the 200 medley and freestyle relay. Maddie Klippenstein will be on the relays as well, while also in the 100 breaststroke.
Sophie Zimmerman, Lindsey Swindler, Emilia Wisniewski and Sage Nichols will also compete for the Pirates in St. Peters.
Banark has the fifth fastest time in the 100 freestyle and ninth in the 200-yard IM, giving her a chance to possibly earn all-state in both events.
In Class 2, Park Hill South finished sixth last year and will look to earn a top-four finish and trophy.
The Trojans and Panthers will have two divers each in the meet with Jaden Galang and Katie Stephenson from Park Hill and Chloe Bowman and Madelyn Stephens for Park Hill South.
Emma Will, Gabby Culp and Arielle Janssens will be in two individual events each. Will and Janssens will be in the 200-yard individual medley, while Culp and Will will be in the 100-yard backstroke. Janssens had 500 freestyle, while Culp will be in the 200 freestyle.
Aspyn Howard, Emily Fickenscher, Elaina Ginest, Emma Owen and Leila Kramer will also be at state for Park Hill.
Coach Karl Haley noted he hasn’t figured out the configuration for his relays as of press time. Park Hill qualified in the 200-yard medley, 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle relays.
Park Hill South will also have all three relays at state and the 200 freestyle has the fifth fastest time going into state.
Ten different Panthers will be at state, seven of them will be in two events. That group features Sydney Staebell (200 IM, 100 butterfly), Emma Clark (200 IM, 100 backstroke), Natalie Maris (200 IM, 100 breaststroke), Ruby Livingston (200 IM, 100 backstroke), Christine Hwang (50 freestyle, 100 freestyle), Lola Reuscher (50 freestyle, 100 freestyle), Brayden Adams (50 freestyle and 100 backstroke).
Amelia Lee, Sophie Jaeger and Madi McNearney will also be at state.
Suburban Conference Red Division meet
Park Hill South took third place at the Suburban Conference Red Division meet held Thursday, Feb. 6-8 in Lee’s Summit.
The Panthers scored 400 points and came in behind Liberty (417) and Liberty North (446) in the seven-team field.
The Panthers were runners-up in the 200-yard medley relay with Emma Clark, Sydney Staebell, Natalie Maris and Christine Hwang finishing in 1:53.21.
Maris added a runner-up finish in the 100-yard breaststroke, while Clark took sixth in the same event.
Staebell and Maris finished second and third in the 200-yard individual medley, while Clark took fifth to give the Panthers 47 points in the event.
Hwang placed third and Lola Reuscher was seventh in the 50-yard freestyle. In the 100-yard freestyle, Hwang placed fourth and Reuscher was eighth, getting 26 points.
The 200-yard freestyle relay team of Reuscher, Hwang, Amelia Lee and Sophia Jaeger took third.
In the 100-yard backstroke, Madi McNeary placed third and Ruby Livingston placed fourth for Park Hill South.
Staebell took fourth in the 100-yard butterfly and joined Lee, Reuscher and Clark on the 400-yard freestyle team that was fourth.