Park Hill posted a breakout showing during the Kansas City Classic this past weekend.
Finishing second in the 17-team meet, the Trojans hit five automatic qualifying times for the Missouri State Swimming and Diving Championships. Rockhurst won the meet with 375½ points, while Park Hill finished with 315.
Prior to the Kansas City Classic, Park Hill had just one individual swimming state cut this season (Alex Dunlevy, 500-meter freestyle). Mark Foster has also qualified for state in 1-meter diving.
Park Hill hit three standards during the preliminaries Friday, Sept. 29 in Blue Springs, Mo. and two more during Saturday’s finals. The lone win for the Trojans came in the 200 freestyle relay with the team of Jordan Timmerman, Zack O’Conor, Hunter Dieffenbach and Nick Dieffenbach.
Previously, Park Hill had qualified all three relays for state, and the Trojans were top four in each at the KC Classic.
The individual cuts added to Park Hill’s potential for the Class 2 Missouri State Swimming and Diving Championships. The Trojans put at least two in the top eight of multiple events, including three in the 500 freestyle.
Dunlevy placed fourth (5:00.66) , while freshman Jacob Fickenscher wound up fifth with a new state cut of 5:02.32 in the finals. Sam Duesterhaus posted his state cut in the event during preliminaries and wound up seventh in the final.
Park Hill also had Timmerman (fifth) and Nick Dieffenbach hit state times in the 100 freestyle. Dieffenbach's cut came as the lead leg of the winning 400 freestyle relay team for the Trojans.
The final new state time came from O’Conor — a senior — in the 100 breaststroke. He posted his season-best of 1:03.10 in preliminaries and then tied for second overall in the final at 1:03.19.
O’Conor also placed fourth in the 200 individual medley, taking nearly 3 full seconds off his preliminary time. Timmerman was fourth in the 50 freestyle for Park Hill at 22.93.
Foster posted a 419.20 to place third in Thursday’s diving.
Eubank Invitational
Platte County finished second out of three schools in the Blue Division during a meet Thursday, Sept. 28 in Raytown, Mo.
Overall, the Pirates only had two event victories, but Alex Beall hit an automatic state qualifying mark in an individual event for the first time in his career. He won the 100 backstroke in a career-best 57.75.
Caden DeLay had the other event win (100 breaststroke) for Platte County.
Beall also placed second in the 200 individual medley, while senior Jerry Orozco nearly hit a consideration time while swimming in the 500 freestyle. He also placed second in 5:36.08.
Platte County totaled 310 points and finished behind Raytown (332).