The back-to-back state champion Park Hill South Panthers girls swim and dive team has their eyes set on a third consecutive state title, but new competition will pose some problems.
The defending two-time Class 2 champion Panthers will have to beat out St. Joseph’s Academy, who made its return to Missouri’s highest classification after winning the Class 1 title last season. Additional competition could come from last year’s Class 2 team medalists in Kirkwood, MICDS and Eureka.
South will be working with a younger team this season; more than half of the team is made up of underclassmen. Still, the focus remains on working hard and achieving goals.
“Same old, same old, nothing really different,” Park Hill South head coach Tim Busenhart said. “Each group is always different, so we have to change things and mix it up a little bit. Change how you work out and get them bought in.”
Not only will Park Hill South have to overcome new competition, but they will also have to do it without an all-time great following the graduation of Natalie Dunaway, who won five individual title the previous two years. Dunaway excelled in sprinting with individual state titles in the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle last year, as well as helping set the state record in the 200-yard freestyle relay and winning the 400-yard freestyle relay title.
Park Hill South does return senior Lizzie Landuyt, who claimed the 100-yard backstroke state championship and was a member of the 400-yard freestyle title-winning relay team, which lost Dunaway and Molly Henry, but does also return sophomore Avery Hogue. The record-breaking 200-yard relay also returns half of its lineup with Hogue returning alongside Ashlyn Hines, but Dunaway and Charlotte Sander will have to be replaced.
The team’s 200-yard medley relay — which went back-to-back — also returns two of four, with Landuyt and Hines back following the departure of Henry and Sander. The returning trio of Landuyt, Hogue, Hines hopes to add some more state medals, but the overall team approach is going to be unique.
“We’re going to be more of a team where we get a lot more points in the consoles than the actual finals,” Busenhart said. “We just have lower depth. It’s a different way to try and hopefully win state.”
The Panthers sent four divers to last year’s state meet, from which only Aniya Clemons contributed 15 points. The team is relying on them for more contributions this year to perform in point-earning positions to get a third consecutive state title.
Early-season results signaled some promising indications, with Park Hill South winning the Marquette Relays by defeating St. Joseph’s Academy 284-264. The only events that St. Joseph’s Academy placed higher than Park Hill South were three relays that are not part of the state meet — the 3x200-yard medley, 3x100 butterfly and 3x100 backstroke.
The Panthers first announced themselves as a force in 2014, when they finished third in state. Since then, they have followed up with six more state medals, including the program’s first two state championships the previous two years.
“My idea of a successful season is being able to do you’re best at the end,” Busenhart said. “It doesn’t matter what place you are because you can’t control where everybody else is. You can only do your best and see where everything else falls out in play.”
Park Hill South will get a better gauge of where they are against statewide competition in Columbia at the CoMo Invitational Jan. 9-10, before competing in the KC Classic Jan. 16-17 in Gladstone. Postseason is set for February with the state meet slated for Feb. 20-21 in St. Peters.