Jack Hokanson completed a determined journey to reach all-state status, while Grisham Gutshall set the stage for a potentially decorated career in last week’s Class 1 MSHSAA and Swimming Diving Championships.
Platte County senior Jack Hokanson swims in the 100-meter butterfl final of the Class 1 MSHSAA Swimming and Diving Championships on Friday at Rec-Plex in St. Peters.
The leader of Platte County’s small senior class, Hokanson finished seventh in the 100-meter butterfly final Friday at Rec-Plex in St. Peters while adding a 14th-place finish in the 200-meter individual medley. Gutshall, a standout freshman, gave the Pirates a second honorable mention all-state showing, coming in ninth in the 100 butterfly.
The duo accounted for all 24 of Platte County’s points, placing the Pirates alone in 25th in the final Class 1 team standings.
Hokanson capped his third state meet in style, setting a career-best of 52.95 in the 100 butterfly to finalize his first all-state medal. He qualified for the finals seventh out of Thursday’s preliminaries at 53.24, cutting 0.33 off his previous fastest time from earlier this season.
Earlier in Friday’s finals, Hokanson finished 14th in the 200 IM consolation final, also matching his seed out of preliminaries when he posted a career-best of 2:04.17. He went slightly slower in the final at 2:04.85, a mark still better than his state qualifying mark of 2:05.28.
Platte County freshman Grisham Gutshall swims in the 100-meter butterfly consolation final of the Class 1 MSHSAA Swimming and Diving Championships on Friday at Rec-Plex in St. Peters.
The two placements improved his showings from last year in the same events. As a junior, he made the consolation final in both the 100 butterfly (12th) and 200 IM (15th). His first trip to state as a sophomore included just two swims, competing in the preliminaries for the 100 butterfly (25th) and 500 freestyle (32nd).
Gutshall’s first trip to state with Platte County concluded with a win. He finished first in the consolation final of the 100 butterfly on Friday to claim ninth place. He entered the meet with a career-best of 54.20 and then improved on that twice, qualifying 10th out of Thursday’s preliminaries at 54.04 and then bettering that at 53.39 to record one of the best state finishes in program history for a freshman.
Also competing in the 200 freestyle, Gutshall just missed a second honorable mention all-state finish. He came in 20th out of preliminaries in his opening individual event with a season-best of 1:52.17, slightly faster than his state qualifying mark of 1:52.23, but outside of the top 16 needed to make one of the two finals races.
In addition to Hokanson and Gutshall, Platte County seniors Finn Smith and Landon Steffens plus sophomore Beau Jonkman also swam at state for a second straight year with the Pirates qualifying all three relays. Nathan Guzman, a junior, made his debut after serving as an alternate last season.
Platte County senior Finn Smith swims a leg of the 400-meter freestyle relay during the preliminaries of the Class 1 MSHSAA Swimming and Diving Championships on Thursday at Rec-Plex in St. Peters.
Jonkman, Steffel and Smith were on Platte County’s state 200 medley relay team for a second straight year along with Guzman. The group posted a time of 1:53.38 in preliminaries (28th) and well off the season-best of 1:46.42.
With swimmers limited to four state races with a maximum of two individual events, Gutshall and Hokanson were on both the 200 and 400 freestyle relays with Smith and Jonkman. The 400 team set a season-best of 3:32.77, nearly 5 full seconds faster than the qualifying mark of 3:37.43, but ended up tied for 21st with Lincoln Prep. The Pirates’ 200 freestyle relay was 20th at 1:35.42, about three-quarters of a second off of the season-best of 1:34.70.
This marked the second time in three seasons that Platte County did not have a relay finalist at state.
Hokanson swam on both the 11th-place 400 freestyle and 13th-place 200 freestyle relays as a junior and qualifying units in the same races as a sophomore. Jonkman’s only honorable mention all-state finish to this point in his career came as part of the 400 team last fall. Steffel also swam in the 200 medley relay preliminaries at state in 2023, as well.
Jonkman (100 backstroke) and Smith (100 breaststroke) both posted state consideration cuts in individual races for the first time this season, but neither ended up in the field of 32 for those events.
