Park Hill South was the runner-up and Park Hill finished fourth in the Park Hill South-Kansas City Public School Invitational held Jan. 24-25 at two different sites.
The diving portion was held at Park Hill High School, while Central Academy of Excellence hosted the finals on Saturday, Jan. 25.
The lone victory came from Emma Clark, who won the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:11.51, a state consideration cut. Clark was the runner-up in the 200-yard individual medley (2:18.96) to get a state consideration marker. In that same race, Park Hill’s Arielle Janssens (5th), Park Hill South’s Ruby Livingston (6th) and Park Hill’s Emma Owen (8th) also earned points.
Clark swam on the 200-yard medley relay with Brayden Adams, Madi McNeary and Christine Hwang and finished as the runner-up in 1:53.97, an automatic state time.
Clark was also on the 400-yard freestyle relay team with Lola Reuscher, Amelia Lee and Hwang that finished second. Hwang, Reuscher, Lee and Jaeger took second in the 200-yard freestyle relay with an automatic state time of 1:41.23.
Reuscher, Lee, Adams and Sophie Jaeger finished in order, 3rd to 6th, in the 50-yard freestyle for the Panthers.
Park Hill South’s Hwang (3rd), Reuscher (6th) and Park Hill’s Gabby Culp (8th) all had state consideration times in the 100-yard freestyle. In the 500-yard freestyle, McNeary was fifth, Owen sixth and Hannah Plough of Park Hill South finished eighth.
Each team had two finish in the top eight in diving. Jaden Galang of Park Hill was the runner-up, while Madelyn Stephens of Park Hill South was third, Katie Stephenson of Park Hill South took fourth and Sydney Pratt-Ferber placed eighth for Park Hill.
Park Hill’s Aspyn Howard, Culp, Emma Will and Janssens were part of the 200-yard medley relay that was fifth. Janssens, Culp, Emily Fickenscher and Will were part of the 400-yard freestyle relay team that placed fourth. The Trojans were eighth in the 200-yard freestyle relay with Howard, Leila Kramer, Grace Hagner and Owen posting a state consideration time of 1:50.30.
Will placed third in the 100-yard backstroke, followed by South’s Adams and Livingston in fifth and sixth, while Culp finished seventh.
Fickenscher was seventh in the 200-yard freestyle for Park Hill. Will finished sixth and Howard took eighth in the 100-yard breaststroke. Will added a sixth-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly.
Platte County Triangular
The Pirates won a triangular against conference foes Smithville and Kearney on senior night on Thursday, Jan. 23 at the Platte County Community Center North.
Platte County had 661 points, followed by Kearney’s 468 and Smithville’s 428, aided by winning nine of the 12 events.
Shannon Banark, Maddie Klippenstein, Lindsey Swindler and Drew DeLay won the 200-yard medley relay (2:00.14), the first of three relay wins for the Pirates.
In the 200-yard freestyle relay, Klippenstein, Swindler, DeLay and Sophia Zimmerman won in 1:15.96. The sweep was finished in the final race, as Zimmerman, Banark, Emilia Wisniewski and Sage Nicholas won in 4:13.22.
Swindler won the 200-yard individual medley, beating Nicholas by less than two seconds.
Klippenstein picked up a victory in the 50-yard freestyle (27.40) and won the 100-yard breaststroke as well (1:11.79). That was part of a 1-2-3 finish for the Pirates, with DeLay taking second and Swindler third.
Platte County also went 1-2-3 in the 100-yard butterfly. Banark won in 1:03.16, followed by Zimmerman and Charlotte Hammond. Banark also won the 100-yard freestyle (55.65), while DeLay was the runner-up.
Wisniewski was the runner-up in the 500-yard freestyle and Zimmerman was third in the 200-yard freestyle relay
Meredith Ballou, Avery Nix, Erian Stone and Madeline Judy were fourth in the 400-yard freestyle relay. Judy won the 100-yard backstroke (1:17.60) and Nix was third for Platte County.
Raytown/Raytown South meet
The Pirates had more points than the second and third-places combined to win a meet on Wednesday, Jan. 22 in Raytown.
Platte County had 631 points, while Raytown (288) and Harrisonville (267) were second and third in the eight-team field.
In three different events, the Pirates swept the top three spots to rack up 53 points in each.
Shannon Banark won the 200-yard individual medley (2:20.71), followed by Meredith Ballou and Erian Stone. Banark added another win in the 100-yard freestyle (56.76), followed by Sophia Zimmerman and Sage Nichols, respectively.
The third 1-2-3 for Platte County was the 100-yard butterfly where Lindsey Swindler won (1:14.07) with Ballou taking second and Emilia Wisniewski taking third.
Banark, Swindler, Maddie Klippenstein and Drew DeLay won the 200-yard medley relay in 1:58.80, while the 400-yard freestyle relay team of Klippenstein, DeLay, Banark and Nichols won in 4:05.83.
DeLay was the champion in the 500-yard freestyle in 5:57.61, winning by 36 seconds.
DeLay was second and Klippenstein was third in the 50-yard freestyle.
Swindler, Madeline Judy, Camaryn Torres Cortes and Zimmerman was second in the 200-yard freestyle relay.
Third-place finishes went to Ava Jonkman (100 backstroke) and Swindler (100 breaststroke).
Park Hill 94, Park Hill South 92
The Trojans got a rare victory over the Panthers in a dual on Tuesday, Jan. 21 on senior night at the Park Hill Aquatic Center.
Park Hill South won seven of the 12 events and had the only automatic state qualifying time in the meet. However, the win for the Trojans is the first in more than a decade, according to stats the Citizen could find.
The Panthers won two of the three relays.
Brayden Adams, Emma Clark, Madi McNeary and Avery Roach won the 200-yard medley relay, while South also won the 200-yard freestyle relay with Clark, Amelia Lee, Lola Reuscher and Christine Hwang in 1:45.40, an automatic state cut.
Park Hill won the 400-yard freestyle relay in 3:54.58, winning by nearly six seconds. Arielle Janssens, Emily Fickenscher, Gabby Culp, and Emma Will made up that team.
Clark won a pair of individual events for Park Hill South, winning the 200-yard individual medley (2:21.90) and 100-yard breaststroke (1:14.45), both state consideration times.
Hwang and Reuscher also added victories for the Panthers. Hwang won the 100-yard freestyle (56.83) and Reuscher won the 50-yard freestyle (25.81).
Janssens won the 500-yard freestyle for Park Hill, getting a state consideration time of 5:41.39.
Culp, a freshman at Park Hill, took first in the 200-yard freestyle (2:04.70), beating Hwang.
Park Hill also got wins from Fickenscher, Jaden Galang and Will.
Galang took first in diving with a score of 203.35 points. Fickenscher won the 100-yard butterfly (1:04.39) and Will, a recent University of St. Mary signee, won the 100-yard backstroke in 1:03.57.
Park Hill honored seniors Galang, Will and Emily Wickherham, while South recognized Anna Cooper, Hannah Plough, Terah Stoker, Sophie Jaeger, Anna Knittig and Laurel Burns.