The Park Hill South boys swim and dive team celebrated its senior class in a meet at the Park Hill Aquatic Center, where they suffered a 112-74 defeat against Rockhurst.
The Panthers won five of the 12 events, highlighted by great success in diving as South swept the top three finishes from he platform. The senior trio of Cooper McQueen (1st; 246 score), Atreyu McCauley (2nd; 240.95), and Henry Dorothy (3rd; 217.05) took the top three diving spots.
Ari Elder swims the 100-yard butterfly in a meet against Rockhurst on Oct. 14 at the Park Hill Aquatic Center.
The trio of Ari Elder, Casey O’Hara and Connor Landuyt were standout performers in the pool. They each formed a winning quartet alongside Alex Foot in the 400-yard freestyle relay, placing first with a time of 3 minutes, 24.04 seconds to beat out Rockhurst’s second-place relay team by 8 seconds.
Individually, Elder took first in the 100 butterfly in 53.88 seconds. Elder came from behind to edge out Rockhurst’s Reilly Eagan (54.65) while Foot finish third in the race.
O’Hara took first in the 100 backstroke in 56.25 seconds to narrowly defeat Rockhurst’s Reilly Eagan (56.68). O’Hara fell behind at the midway point of the race, but came back to win.
Landuyt won the 100 freestyle race in 49.81 as the only swimmer to finish under 50 seconds. The sophomore also finished second in the 200 freestyle (1:50.79).
Park Hill South sophomore Connor Landuyt swims the 100-yard freestyle against Rockhurst on Oct. 14.
O’Hara and Elder also helped the Panthers’ 200 medley relay to a third-place finish in 1:44.38 alongside freshman Tavin Nachlinger and Jake Zupan. Foot earned third-place finishes in 200 freestyle (1:53.99) and 100 yard freestyle (57.36).
Nachlinger also impressed for Park Hill South with some finishes near the top. He finished third in the 200 individual medley in 2:30.17 and helped the 200 freestyle relay to a second-place finish with the trio of Foot, Landuyt and Elder.
The Panthers will finish the month with the Greater KC Suburban Red Division championships Oct. 29-Nov. 1 at the Gladstone Community Center before districts the following week.