Deacon Gutshall continued the steady improvement of his own school record and then added an all new program-best time to his growing resume as one of the best swimmers ever at Platte County.
Platte County senior Palmer Keith swims in the 200-yard individual medley final during the COMO Invitational on Saturday at Mizzou Aquatic Center in Columbia.
Over the weekend, Gutshall finished an impressive third in the 500-yard freestyle and eighth in the 200-yard freestyle, making the A Final in both at the COMO Invitational, which featured 50 teams from across the state competing at the Mizzou Aquatic Center. Uniquely, the senior standout also set a school record in the 100-yard freestyle as the lead leg in the 400-yard freestyle.
Gutshall now owns Platte County’s school record in the 500-, 200- and 100-yard freestyle. The Pirates totaled 54 team points and finished 15th overall behind his efforts and those of fellow senior star Palmer Keith, who made the A final and finished sixth in 200 individual medley in addition to an 11th-place finish in the 100 breaststroke.
Both were also on the B finalist 200 and 400 freestyle relay teams that scored big points and set season-best Class 1 MSHSAA Swim and Diving Championships qualifying marks.
All in all, Platte County enjoyed a strong weekend, starting in preliminaries. Gutshall sneaked into the A final of the 200 freestyle with a season-best time of 1 minute, 45.01 seconds to take the No. 8 spot and then cruised to the No. 4 qualifying spot in the 500. The Pirates’ 200 freestyle of Gutshall, Keith, junior Jack Hokanson and senior Cobie Parkin were No. 14 in the 200 freestyle relay preliminaries in a season-best 1:32.96, and the highlight came in the closing race.
Platte County senior Deacon Gutshall swims in the 200-yard freestyle relay final during the COMO Invitational on Saturday at Mizzou Aquatic Center in Columbia.
Gutshall led off the 400 freestyle relay with a split of 48.26 seconds, the fastest 100 yards in that discipline in Platte County history. He broke the prior mark Alex Beall set in 2018 at 48.59, incidentally also set at the COMO Invitational in a swim off after a placement tie in the open 100 freestyle.
Platte County’s team of Gutshall, Keith, Hokanson and freshman Beau Jonkman set a season-best at 3:28.12 and qualified for the final in 13th and then bettered that in the finals at 3:28.08 to finish 14th.
Gutshall added to his weekend in Saturday’s 500 freestyle final, coming in at 4:36.65 behind Kearney’s Whitaker Steward (4:30.68) and Parkway Central’s Brody Blatt. A week earlier, Gutshall broke his school record twice at the North Kansas City Invitational, going 4:40.74 in preliminaries and 4:37.26 in the finals.
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 made the state field as a freshman in the event 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.
Platte County senior Palmer Keith swims in the 100-yard breaststroke final during the COMO Invitational on Saturday at Mizzou Aquatic Center in Columbia.
Prior to his sophomore year, only Nathan Savage in 2008 put up a time under 5 minutes in the 500 freestyle for Platte County, and Gutshall is working toward shaving nearly 25 seconds off that mark.
Earlier in Saturday’s finals, Gutshall placed eighth in the 200 freestyle at 1:45.76, slightly off his 1:45.01 from preliminaries a day earlier. He medaled at state in both the 500 and 200 as a junior and now owns some of the top qualifying marks in Class 1 again as a senior.
Keith owns the school record in both the 200 IM and 100 breaststroke and continued to turn in strong showings in both of those events. He put up a season-best 1:56.19 in the 200 IM prelims to qualify sixth and then held seed in the finals despite coming in at 1:58.00.
With the new low time, Keith moved into the top five for the event in Class 1 this season.
In the 100 breaststroke, Keith also swam faster in prelims (1:00.72) than in his 11th-place finals swim (1:01.40). He slightly improved his state qualifying time and sits seventh on that event list.
Platte County junior Jack Hokanson celebrates with coach Britt Johnson after a strong preliminary swim during the COMO Invitational on Friday at Mizzou Aquatic Center in Columbia.
After qualifying 14th in the 200 freestyle relay, Platte County finished 16th in the finals (1:33.44). However, the Pirates’ prelim time set a season-best by a little more than 3 seconds and now tentatively ranks eighth in Class 1 for the event.
The 400 freestyle relay improved by over a second but stayed 10th on the Class 1 state consideration time list.
In addition to swimming on both relays, Hokanson put up impressive season-best times in the 200 IM (2:07.09) and 100 butterfly (55.90). He went to state in both events as a sophomore and moved up to 24th in the medley and 27th in the butterfly for Class 1 after knocking off more than 4 seconds off his consideration time in the former and more than 3 seconds off the latter.
Independence Quad
Platte County won six total races in a meet with Truman, William Chrisman and Blue Springs on Wednesday in Independence, despite having most swimmers in at least one “off” event.
Keith and Gutshall were first in two each, while Jack Hokanson claimed the top spot in the 100 butterfly (57.32). Keith entered into the 50 freestyle (23.84) and 100 backstroke (1:01.50), while Gutshall won the 200 freestyle (1:59.10) ahead of freshman teammate Nathan Guzman (2:25.27) and the 100 breaststroke (1:09.47) to edge Hokanson (1:10.40).
Platte County went full strength in the 200 freestyle relay with Gutshall, Keith, Hokanson and Parkin and finished first in 1:39.07. The Pirates were second in both the 200 medley and 400 freestyle relays.
