A pair of Platte County swimmers collected medals and made history at the Missouri Class 1 Swimming and Diving Championships on Saturday, Nov. 16, at the St. Peter’s Rec-Plex.
Deacon Gutshall and Palmer Keith, both seniors, broke school records in individual events and collected two medals. Not only were records broken during the preliminary round, but they were also broken again during the championships.
Gutshall set a new school record of 4:34.93 in the 500-yard freestyle race in the preliminary race on Friday, Nov. 15, and then set a new record on Saturday of 4:34.7, which was also good for third place in the championship race.
Gutshall also set a new school record in the 200-yard freestyle event. He broke his own record with a time of 1:44.64 in the championships, which was also good for fourth place.
Palmer Keith
DENNIS SHARKEY/Citizen Photo
Keith set new school records in the 200-yard individual medley event and the 100-yard breaststroke event. In the 200 IM, Keith broke the previous record by more than two seconds, according to Platte County Activities social media. Keith turned in a preliminary time of 1:54.19 and then backed that up with a time of 1:54.02 in the championship event, which was good for fifth place.
In the 100-yard breaststroke, Keith turned in a school-best time of 58.32 but was a second slower in the championship event, in which he finished in sixth place.
Platte County junior Jack Hokanson earned a trip to the consolation finals in two individual events. Hokanson finished in 15th place in the 200-yard IM and turned in a 12th-place performance in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 54.09 in the preliminaries and a time of 54.32 in the consolation finals.
Two of Platte County’s relay teams also made it to Day 2 of the championships in the consolation finals. The 200-yard freestyle relay team of Gutshall, senior Coburn Parkin, Hokanson, and Keith finished 13th in the consolation finals with a time of 1:33.35. The 400-yard freestyle relay team of Gutshall, freshman Beau Jonkman, Hokanson, and Keith finished 11th with a time of 3:25.36.
The Pirates’ 200-yard IM relay team of Jonkman, junior Finn Smith, junior Landon Steffel, and Parkin finished 29th overall with a preliminary time of 1:52.25.
