Platte County went into last season needing to restock the talent pool. The Pirates did so in short order and will now have the Class 1 Missouri State Swimming and Diving Championships experience — even if a big chunk of that comes from sophomores — ready to keep the momentum.
As a freshman, Palmer Keith set a trio of individual school records and provided a key leg in a relay that did the same.
Platte County rolled up 37 points and placed 17th in the final team standings at state in Class 1. For the sixth consecutive year, the Pirates boasted at least one top-16 finish, but this came just one year after a 16th-place 400 freestyle relay accounted for their only two points.
In 2019, Platte County was 16th with 40 points following 16th in 2018 with 53 points and 13th in 2017 with 61 points. Now, the Pirates might have enough for a top-10 push with Dylan Bietz, Christian Yocklin and Douglas Wallace the only graduated state qualifiers from last year.
Entering 2021, only Bietz and current senior Collin Burton came back from the 2020 honorable mention all-state 400 freestyle relay and with individual experience. The Pirates go into this year with Keith, Burton, senior Gage Jonkman, senior Carson Howe, senior Brody Corbin, senior Austin Hough and sophomore Deacon Gutshall.
After putting up state qualifying times in every individual event as a freshman, Keith will again be the centerpiece. He earned all-state honors in the 200-yard individual medley and added an honorable mention 16th-place finish in the 100 butterfly, while also swimming a leg on two honorable mention all-state relays.
Returning to a familiar format, the state took the top 32 entrants in each swimming event with all qualifiers limited to two individual events and two relays. The top eight in preliminaries advanced to the championship final while spots 9-16 went to the consolation final. The top 16 in each event score team points, assuming no disqualifications.
Only Keith put up a top-eight preliminary time for Platte County, and he did so in impressive fashion. In the 200 IM, he bettered his own school record during on Day 1 of state, posting the sixth-fastest time at 1 minute, 59.57 seconds. The sub-2-minute performance obliterated his previous best of 2:02.54 from two weeks earlier in the Suburban Conference Blue Division Championships prelims.
Entering 2021, Nathan Savage held the school record at 2:03.62, and Keith originally broke it at 2:03.50 early in his freshman season and then went on to shave nearly 4 full seconds off of that mark by the end of the year. He went on to finish seventh in the final at 2:00.30 for the first all-state finish of his career.
Keith then just missed breaking school record in the 100 butterfly later in preliminaries but still qualified for the consolation final at 54.84 with the No. 15 time, and he ended up 16th in the final at 55.38 to score another point for Platte County. The school record Keith set at conference remains at 54.46, and he also owns the 200 freestyle program-best time after his first season, although he did not swim that event at state. He set the mark at during a quad in Lee’s Summit earlier in the year at 1:51.14, topping the previous program-best time of 1:51.19 Baxter Stone set in 2019.
Bietz and Burton also swam in four events at state, including both top-16 relays. A three-time honorable mention all-state performer in his career as a part of relays, Bietz just missed a spot in the consolation final of the 50 freestyle after tying for the last spot but losing a rare head-to-head swimoff, along with competition in the 100 freestyle preliminaries (27th) despite suffering a freak lacerated heel at the conference meet that required stitches.
Platte County’s 400 freestyle team of Bietz, Howe, Burton and Keith set a school record in the state preliminaries preliminaries at 3:24.11 with the No. 13 qualifying time. The Pirates then bettered that mark and moved to 12th in the finals at 3:23.82. The previous school record came in 2018 at 3:24.48 from the Pirates team of Rhett Spell, Ryan Dye, Joe Ragone and Alex Beall.
The same quartet of Bietz, Howe, Burton and Keith also dropped time between preliminaries and finals to earn a 10th-place finish in the 200 freestyle relay. Platte County qualified 12th at 1:32.05 and then came in two spots better on the podium at 1:31.69, which also set a season-best. The Pirates qualified all three relays and the 200 medley team of Howe, Yocklin, Jonkman and Gutshall put up the No. 26 time in prelims at 1:47.94, just a second off of the season-best time from conference.
Burton competed in two individual events at state for a second straight season, coming in 24th in the 100 butterfly (57.20) and 29th in the 200 freestyle (1:56.47). He was 23rd in the 100 butterfly and 100 freestyle as a sophomore when the state only took 24 in each event due to COVID-19 protocols.
In addition, Burton has been on two state relays each of the first three years of his career.
Yocklin swam on the state medley relay for a second straight season, while making his individual debut, placing 28th in the 100 breaststroke at 1:06.26, after qualifying with a career-best 1:04.81 effort at conference.
Jonkman and Gutshall made their relay and individual debuts for Platte County.
In the 500 freestyle preliminaries, both set a season-best and nearly made the finals. Gutshall dropped nearly 4 full seconds off his qualifying time and came up just .02 of a second off of 16th in and the last spot in the finals by the narrowest of margins. Jonkman shaved nearly 11 full seconds off his career-best and placed 19th.
Jonkman also competed in the 100 backstroke preliminaries and came in 31st (1:00.12). Wallace and Corbin were relay alternates but did not swim.
While limited to just two events, the number of state consideration qualifying times for the returners is impressive:
- Keith, 8
- Burton, 4
- Gutshall, 4
- Jonkman, 2
- Howe, 2
All of five plus more were part of an effort at the Blue Division Championships that nearly unseated Kearney for the league crown. Platte County came up just 11 points short of earning a first conference title since 2014 with the Bulldogs having now won seven straight.
Keith won an individual title in the individual medley.
Platte County will move up to the White Division this year and will be chasing that conference title against Belton, Grain Valley, Raytown and William Chrisman.
