Deacon Gutshall followed the race of his life with another during a standout two days at the North Kansas City Invitational.
Platte County senior Deacon Gutshall swims in the 500-yard freestyle final of the North Kansas City Invitational on Saturday at Gladstone Community Center.
In Friday’s 500-yard freestyle preliminaries, Platte County’s senior distance star set a personal best, only to come back in Saturday’s final to knock another 6 seconds off the school record he has held and continually lowered for the past two years. He finished second to Kearney junior Whitaker Steward, the defending Class 1 state champion in the event who received a rare push.
Gutshall and fellow senior star Palmer Keith reached the A final in two events each and helped Platte County set season-bests in two top-16 relays. As a result, the Pirates placed 10th out of 22 teams with 101 points as the top Class 1 finisher in a strong field at Gladstone Community Center.
Steward and Gutshall now have the top two Class 1 MSHSAA Swimming and Diving Championship qualifying times in the 500 freestyle. Both came in Saturday’s final.
Gutshall finished in 4 minutes, 40.74 seconds — second fastest in preliminaries and cutting about 2 1/2 seconds off his previous fastest swim while placing third at state last fall. He then posted a 4:37.26 in the final to come in about 3 seconds back of Steward’s winning time of 4:33.16.
Platte County senior Palmer Keith dives in for his leg of the 200-yard freestyle relay during the North Kansas City Invitational finals Saturday at Gladstone Community Center.
In late September of 2022 as a sophomore, Gutshall broke a 14-year-old school record in the 500 freestyle at 4:53.78. He sneaked into the state field as a freshman and nearly made the consolation final, a finish that altered the course of his high school career and started a trajectory into the state’s elite for distance swimming.
Prior to his sophomore year, only Nathan Savage in 2008 put up a time under 5 minutes in the 500 freestyle for Platte County.
Gutshall also holds the 200 freestyle school record, and he added a seventh-place finish in the NKC Invitational in that event. He went 1:46.19 in Saturday’s final with a nearly identical effort to his fifth-place qualifying time in prelims of 1:46.18.
Steward also won that event (1:42.56).
Keith, Platte County’s other returning all-state performer, placed fifth in the 100 butterfly and eighth in the 100 breaststroke while setting season-best times in both during the weekend. He went 53.72 in the 100 butterfly during the finals for his best finish of the weekend and to move into the No. 6 spot for Class 1 qualifying times so far this season.
In the 100 breaststroke, Keith set a season-best in the preliminaries at 1:00.76 — the No. 5 time in the state — before ending up eighth in the final 1:01.40.
Platte County junior Jack Hokanson made the B final to round out the team’s individual swims on Saturday, and he finished 12th overall (2:12.61). He ranks No. 30 in Class 1 with his time from the NKC preliminaries (2:11.43).
The big boost to Platte County’s final team position in the standings came from the 200 and 400 freestyle relays. The Pirates were seventh in the A final for the 200 freestyle using the combination of Gutshall, Keith, Hokanson and senior Cobie Parkin posting a time of 1:36.17, good for 10th currently in Class 1.
Notably, Gutshall also set a state qualifying standard time in the 50 freestyle while swimming the lead leg. He also led off Platte County’s 400 freestyle relay ahead of Hokanson, Keith and freshman Beau Jonkman. The Pirates now rank tied for fourth in Class 1 for that event after winning the B final in 3:29.49 — a noticeable drop from posting the 10th-best qualifying time in Friday’s preliminary at 3:33.62.
The NKC Invite marked the first of two straight weekends at large meets for Platte County, which travels to the COMO Invitational on Friday and Saturday at the Mizzou Aquatic Center in Columbia.
