Depth powers Platte County to 7th straight team conference title

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — Most of the swimmers and definitely head coach Britt Johnson knew the situation before the final race, but no one wanted to celebrate early.

Platte County went into the concluding 400-yard freestyle relay Saturday afternoon’s Suburban Conference White Division Championships at Henley Aquatic Center with the team title mathematically wrapped up with no fear of a false start or disqualification spoiling the stretch. The Pirates did most of the vital work during Friday’s preliminaries and were more than good enough to continue an impressive streak despite winning only 2 of 12 events.

In what ended up a two-team battle, Platte County’s 497 points were 35 more than second-place Grain Valley, unable to accrue enough with a high-scoring trio of standouts. Instead, the Pirates won a seventh straight conference title, the last three after moving up to the White Division after winning four straight from 2019-2022.

“We did know,” Platte County senior Sarah Howe said. “We didn’t want to really tell anybody though because we did still want the hype of that final 400 relay to still be there.”

Grain Valley won 9 of the 11 races while Belton junior Emma Gillespie finished first in Thursday’s 1-meter diving competition.

However, Platte County opened Saturday’s finals with a momentous victory in the 200 medley relay, and junior Ashleigh Cruce’s conference title in the 100 breaststroke led a strong showing for the Pirates in the final individual event to build an advantage of 41 points with Grain Valley could only score 40 in the 400 freestyle relay. Each team could have four individual entrants in each race.

Platte County made the most of their depth from the outset and finished with 10 different individual medalists — seniors Ireland Shank, Howe and Chloe Pegler; juniors Erin Anderson and Cruce; sophomores Mackenzie Johnson, Ronnie Benford, Alex Yurko, Vivienne Sayre and Thais Thompson; and freshman Penelope Thomas.

“This one means a lot,” Howe said while flanked by Shank and Pegler. “It’s our senior year, obviously, and I feel like we lost a lot of really prevalent seniors last year so being able to come back and show that we’re still here and we’re still going to win is meaningful for the team.

In the opening race, Platte County’s medley relay of Cruce, Johnson, Pegler and Shank set a new season-best Class 1 MSHSAA Swimming and Diving Championships consideration state cut of 2 minutes, 1.50 seconds. With swimmers limited to just two relays assuming they enter two individual events, the win seemed important given the potential for a close team race.

Grain Valley came in more than 3 seconds behind and went on to win both the 200 and 400 freestyle relay races.

“That was so exciting,” Shank said. “We all were super hyped.”

Platte County potentially lost some momentum in the next race due to a disqualification that kept the Pirates from maximizing the point total from four A finalists, although Benford (second, 2:17.22) and Howe (fifth, 2:30.14) making the medal stand. However, their team lead increase to 43 points after the 200 individual medley with Johnson finishing second (2:32.62), Shank third (2:36.89) and Penelope Thompson (2:55.48).

Grain Valley ended up with a disqualification in the A final that offset the previous race, but the Eagles medaled three in the 50 freestyle with Pegler’s third-place showing 27.38 breaking up their top three finishers. Pegler entered off of posting the first individual state cut of her two-year career during Friday’s preliminary at 27.03, which seeded her second.

“It was the most exciting thing,” Pegler said. “I’ve been working on it for two years since I joined last year and so I was beyond excited to get it.”

Platte County’s lead ended up back at eight but never fully dissolved despite Grain Valley getting six wins from juniors Ellie Martin, Kallie Beard and Kate Epple.

Cruce (second, 1:04.35), Shank (third, 1:10.67), Yurko (fifth, 1:13.59) and Penelope Thompsons (seventh, 1:16.76) all made the A final for Platte County in the 100 butterfly, while Pegler and Anderson helped the Pirates outscore Grain Valley in the 100 freestyle, as well. Pegler came in third again (1:02.69), while Anderson medaled fourth (1:03.07).

In the 500 freestyle, Johnson (second, 6:05.94), Benford (third, 6:14.83) and Howe (6:47.13) helped offset Grain Valley’s victory there. Johnson and Benford have both picked up more long-distance events that help better fill out the entry sheet despite having strengths in other events.

“I love our team,” Shank said. “They’re so great, and everyone on this side of the pool was always cheering.”

Platte County’s 200 freestyle relay team of Shank, Benford, Johnson and Pegler ran a fairly safe second-place race, finishing 1:53.22 and about 7 seconds behind Grain Valley. Those points secured, the focus turned to seeing what the totals would look like going into the final race and whether the Pirates would need to finish the race to secure the team title.

Anderson (fifth, 1:15.09) and Yurko (sixth, 1:18.43) led Platte County in the 100 backstroke, and Cruce provided a highlight with a dominant effort in the 100 breaststroke. She posted a career-best 1:14.33 to improve her state cut and beat Grain Valley senior Wade Riley by more than a second.

Maybe not known at the time, Platte County’s lone individual victory paired with Sayre’s sixth-place finish locked up the White Division championship.

“(Ashleigh) is an amazing swimmer,” Pegler said.

Grain Valley won the 400 freestyle relay by nearly 15 seconds with Platte County’s team of Benford, Yurko, Anderson and Cruce in 4:09.04. However, the Pirates were still ready to celebrate thanks to another full team effort that included Thais Thompson providing 15 points as the fourth-place finisher in diving.

Platte County must now wait to see what the full state qualifying list looks like this week. Just like at conference, swimmers can only have two individual races so the top 32 advancing in each event ends up determined after decisions are made on participation. The Pirates have only two of three relays qualified — the 200 medley (26th in Class 1) and the 400 freestyle, which put up the No. 32 time in a last chance meet Tuesday to ensure a spot in the field.

Currently, Cruce (33rd, 100 breaststroke and 38th, 100 butterfly) has Platte County’s best shot to advance as an individuals, while Johnson (53rd, 200 IM; 63rd, 500 freestyle; and 76th, 200 freestyle) and Pegler (84th, 50 freestyle) also have hit cuts. All three plus Benford and Pegler have swam at state before.

The Class 1 MSHSAA Swimming and Diving Championships will be contested Friday and Saturday at Rec-Plex in St. Peters.