Keith, Gutshall continuing individual paths to program’s upper echelon

Platte County’s roster features two of the best individual swimmers in program history — and both are juniors. The key to building on the Pirates’ recent successes likely revolves around refortifying relays.

Two elite pieces make the task less daunting.

Platte County standout juniors Palmer Keith and Deacon Gutshall return after both posted all-state finishes as sophomores in both individual events and part of strong relays. However, the Pirates must replace Collin Burton, Gage Jonkman, Carson Howe, Weston Grimes, Brody Corbin, Joey Croy and Austin Hough from a team that tied a program-best with a 13th-place finish in last year’s Class 1 Missouri State Swimming and Diving Championships.

With no seniors on this year’s roster, Platte County first-year coach Britt Johnson takes over for Brett Anderson, who led the Pirates to unprecedented success over the past 16 seasons. So what will success look like with Keith and Gutshall leading the way?

“Success comes in many forms,” Johnson said. “We have already seen a lot of improvement from our less experienced swimmers. If our athletes can have significant improvement in times, as well as enjoy the sport, this is a successful season. Additionally, I would like to see our top-end swimmers perform at high levels in big meets. I am not concerned about places as much as I am about improving times. I will also be happy with great times over winning meets. I would rather have great times and lose than poor times and win.”

Platte County took 11 to state, and five factored into the 63 team points accrued. The Pirates also placed 13th in 2017 with 61 points.

As expected, Keith and Gutshall led the way the way with a top-eight, all-state and honorable mention all-state finish apiece while combining to break three of their own school records. They also combined with Burton and Jonkman to close the meet with a school record of 3 minutes, 22.17 seconds to place 10th in the 400-meter freestyle. The remaining points came from Keith, Gutshall, Burton and Howe coming in 14th in the 200 freestyle relay.

Platte County ended up just 20 points short of a top-10 finish, continuing to thrive in the sixth season since the state divided the sport into two classifications.

Currently, swimmers have to post a state consideration qualifying time, and the state then takes the top 32 entrants in each event with all qualifiers limited to two individual events and two relays. The top eight in preliminaries at state advance to the championship final while spots 9-16 go to the consolation final. The top 16 in each event score team points, assuming no disqualifications.

Relays score twice the amount of points as individual events.

With the large senior class gone, the only other member of last year’s state team back will be sophomore Jack Hokanson, who was a relay alternate. Platte County also returns juniors Cobie Parkin, Zach Linville and Sonney Marquis back in the fold with freshman Collin Bralley adding depth to distance freestyle.

However, the roster will be thin, and Johnson’s first year at the helm will rely heavily on Keith and Gutshall to lead the way now and moving forward.

With a slight edge on Gutshall for state experience, Keith matched the best individual state placement in Platte County history last fall, coming in fifth in the 200 individual medley. He went 1:56.58 in preliminaries to better his own school record set earlier in the season by about 2 1/2 seconds. He qualified for the finals fifth and held that spot in the finals while turning in a slightly slower time (1:57.23). The all-state placement — second of his career — matched a fifth-place finish in the 100 breaststroke back in 2017 for Caden DeLay, the program’s all-time best and perhaps the only one left for Keith and Gutshall to chase.

Keith did not quite reach DeLay’s school record in the 100 breaststroke and missed a spot in the final by .02 of a second. He qualified for the consolation final with the No. 9 overall time (1:00.76) and ultimately finished 10th in 1:00.64.

Now all-state in each of his first two seasons, Keith placed seventh in the 200 IM and 16th in the 100 butterfly as a freshman.

Gutshall qualified for state as a freshman, sneaking into the 500 freestyle field and then narrowly missing a spot in the consolation final. The experience helped shift much of his individual focus to distance freestyle as a sophomore — a move that paid off big time.

Finding continued success in longer events, Gutshall broke his own school record in the 500 freestyle in both preliminaries and finals to earn all-state honors at sixth place. He also won the 200 freestyle consolation final to place ninth and again break his own record in that event.

Three weeks earlier, Gutshall set school records in all four of his individual races — prelims and finals — while helping lift Platte County to the Suburban Conference White Division team title — first for the program since 2014. He nearly did the same at state, going 1:47.64 in the 200 freestyle prelims to miss his mark by .02 of a second. He qualified ninth and then held that spot with a 1:46.45 in the final to cut more than a second off his previous career best from the conference final.

Gutshall broke the 4:50 mark for the first time in his 500 freestyle preliminary to set a school record at 4:49.57. He qualified for the final in seventh and then moved up to sixth to next day and lower the mark to 4:49.02.

Prior to last season, only Nathanial Savage had gone under 5 minutes in the event for Platte County, and Gutshall has now lowered the school record mark by more than 8 seconds. He took the 200 freestyle mark from Keith, who set three individual school records as a freshman and still holds the 200 IM and 100 butterfly marks.

Gutshall has now shaved about 5 seconds off of Keith’s previous school record in the 200 freestyle.

Even with two standouts to anchor relays, Platte County must replace a lot. Burton, Jonkman and Howe also qualified in individual events, but none of the three seniors qualified in the top 16. Burton swam in two individual events each of his final three seasons and contributed to at least one state relay in all four of his years in the program.

Keith swam on honorable mention all-state 200 and 400 freestyle relay teams for Platte County as a freshman. Gutshall swam on the 2021 200 medley relay team that did not place in the top 16.

Platte County has recorded at least one point at state for seven straight years, including all six since the class split. The Pirates have made an impressive climb from tied for 35th with just two points in 2020 to 17th in 2021 with 37 points to last year’s record season. Now, the Pirates have similar momentum that helped produce the run of 16th in 2019 (40 points), 16th in 2018 (53 points) and 13th in 2017 (61 points) in the first year of the two-class system. They scored a single point in 2016 with every school in the state in the same competition to start the current streak.

However, Platte County’s hopes to again set a program-best state finish will likely hinge on how far Keith and Gutshall can carry a mostly inexperienced roster. Johnson wants the focus to go beyond swimming with team initiatives aimed at mental health, community service and non-swimming training.

“I am trying to push being good students and people first, and athletes second,” he said.