Four schools records from two star juniors over one memorable weekend.
Platte County junior Deacon Gutshall competes in the 200-yard freestyle during the North Kansas City Invitational preliminaries Friday at Gladstone Community Center.
Platte County ended up 10th out of 25 teams in the final team standings of the two-day North Kansas City Invitational at Gladstone Community Center — mostly on the strength of individual showings from Deacon Gutshall and Palmer Keith plus their contributions to two strong relays.
Gutshall and Keith made the A finals of two individual events apiece, and while originally an alternate, Platte County sophomore Jack Hokanson also ended up in the B Final of the 100-meter butterfly. Those three plus junior Cobie Parkin powered the Pirates into the top 16 of the 200 and 400 free relays, as well.
In the 200 freestyle preliminaries, Gutshall topped his own school record before doing the same to his 500 freestyle mark in Saturday’s final. Keith improved his 100 butterfly record on both days, breaking his own PR in both of those races.
Gutshall continued his rapid development in long-distance freestyle, starting in his first preliminary race. He posted the second-best qualifying time at 1 minute, 46.40 seconds — knocking more than a second off his career best of 1:47.62 in the process. He went on to place sixth in the A final at 1:47.73, nearly matching his previous school record.
Platte County junior Palmer Keith swims in the 100-yard butterfly during the North Kansas City Invitational preliminaries Friday at Gladstone Community Center.
In the 500, Gutshall’s preliminary time of 4:49.67 qualified him in the fourth position and again put him just off his school record mark of 4:49.02 set at last year’s Class 1 Missouri State Swimming and Diving Championships. He held the spot and placed fourth in Saturday’s final but did so in a school-record time of 4:48.86 — a time currently ranked fourth among Class 1 state qualifying marks in that event.
Gutshall also ranks No. 5 in Class 1 for the 200 freestyle.
Last season, Gutshall became just the second in program history to swim the 500 freestyle in under 5 minutes and has continually lowered the mark over the past year. He took the 200 freestyle school record from Keith, who set three program-best marks as a freshman and still holds two others.
That includes the 100 butterfly mark, which Keith pushed under 54 seconds two different times over the weekend. He put up the No. 2 qualifying mark on Friday at 53.55 to better his 2022 school record of 54.04. He then finished second in the A final at 53.38.
Platte County sophomore Jack Hokanson competes in the 100-meter butterfly finals during the North Kansas City Invitational on Saturday at Gladstone Community Center.
Keith also made the A final of the 100 breaststroke, an event where he continues to to chase Caden DeLay’s school record. He qualified No. 6 at 1:01.79 in preliminaries and then improved to fifth in a season-best 1:01.10, a mark that currently ranks him No. 10 in Class 1.
Additionally, Keith’s school record in the 100 butterfly sits seventh, and he holds the No. 9 position in the 200 individual medley.
Hokanson joined Keith in the B final of the 100 butterfly but only after Dallas York of Lee’s Summit scratched out of Saturday’s competition. Hokanson posted the No. 17 time in preliminaries 58.96 to apparently miss the last finals spot by just .07 of a second.
However, as the first alternate, Hokanson took York’s spot then took advantage of the opportunity by placing 14th in 58.90, which is exactly 0.40 of a second off his career-best that positions him 40th at this point in Class 1.
Platte County junior Cobie Parkin swims a leg of the 400-yard freestyle relay during the North Kansas City Invitational this past weekend at Gladstone Community Center.
Hokanson also just missed the B final in the 200 IM, placing 19th in 2:15.13 — just 0.13 of a second off his career-best that currently ranks him No. 52 in Class 1. The fastest 32 individuals in each event and relays qualify for state with swimmers permitted to enter and actually compete in a maximum of four events, no more than two of which may be individual events.
In the relays, Platte County’s Gutshall, Keith, Hokanson and Parkin set a season-best in the 400 freestyle at 3:31.65 in Saturday’s final to place 10th as part of the B final. They cut about 2 1/2 seconds off of their preliminary time that also ranked 10th.
The same quartet just missed the 200 freestyle relay A final, placing ninth in preliminaries at 1:36.69 then finishing ninth in Saturday’s final at 1:36.95. Platte County’s season-best int hat event of 1:36.18 ranks No. 8 in Class 1, while the Pirates are No. 14 now in the 400 freestyle and No. 18 in the 200 medley relay.
Park Hill 662, Platte County 476, Union Star 33
The Pirates used last Tuesday’s triangular at Platte County Community Center North mostly to put individuals in “off events” to post times.
However, Keith still won both of his races, while Gutshall added another, and Platte County’s top quartet also won the 400 freestyle relay (3:46.66). Parkin finished second in the 50 freestyle (25.26) for the Pirates.
Keith set state qualifying marks in winning both the 200 freestyle (1:52.31) and 500 freestyle (5:08.79). While not likely to be postseason events for him, he now ranks No. 17 in the 200 freestyle and No. 19 in the 500 freestyle for Class 1. Guthsall won the 200 IM in 2:05.37 (currently No. 16 in Class) while finishing second in the 100 backstroke at 57.72 (currently No. 21 in Class 1).
