GLADSTONE, Mo. — Unable to defend a four straight Suburban Conference Blue Division titles, Platte County decided to acquire some new hardware. The Pirates ended up easily outpointing Grain Valley on Saturday in the Suburban Conference White Division Championships at Gladstone Community Center.
Platte County junior Brooklynn Hays swims in the 200-yard freestyle during the Suburban Conference White Division Championships on Saturday at Gladstone Community Center in Gladstone.
In what became an intriguing three-team race, Platte County used overwhelming depth and a pair of individual titles from junior Brooklynn Hays to claim the a fifth straight league title. The Pirates won four straight in the Blue Division from 2019-22 and now took home the White Division plaque in their inaugural season in that tier of the conference.
“This year, I felt like we had to work for it a little bit more,” Hays said. “There was a lot of talk, ‘OK, guys, you know what you’re working for; you know it’s going to be a little harder this year,’ and so having that little push and drive to do better and go fast, I think that helped.”
With William Chrisman not having any entries, Platte County entered as favorites in a four-team race. Grain Valley ended up winning 5 of 8 individual events, including 1-meter diving, while Platte County took two of the three relays.
Belton wound up third with 460 points — just nine back of Grain Valley.
Platte County did the hard work toward piling up 559 points with strong showings in Friday’s preliminaries. The Pirates put at least three swimmers in each of the eight A finals, and Hays highlighted Saturday’s performances, breaking her own school record in the 200-yard freestyle and setting a career-best in the 100 breaststroke to finish just in front of runner-up and senior teammate Drew DeLay, who finished second in both of her individual events.
Platte County senior Drew DeLay swims her leg of the 200-yard medley relay during the Suburban Conference White Division Championships on Saturday at Gladstone Community Center in Gladstone.
In addition, Platte County senior Blair Bolling put up the first two individual Class 1 Missouri State Swimming and Diving Championships qualifying consideration times (100 breaststroke and 200 freestyle), while sophomore Ireland Shank added a runnerup finish in the 100 butterfly, and fellow sophomore Madeleine Stone placed third in her two individual events (200 individual medley and 100 backstroke).
The totality of Platte County’s top-to-bottom effort shows with seniors Madeline Judy and Lauren Beatty earning all-conference honors on the winning 200 freestyle relay, while Stone, DeLay, Shank and Hays opened the meet with a victory in the 200 medley relay.
After experimenting with a few individuals in the event to start the season, Platte County did not have an entrant in diving, meaning Grain Valley started Saturday with an advantage in the team standings. Hays then keyed a quick comeback, entering the water for the freestyle anchor leg of the medley relay and pulling the Pirates away for a healthy margin of victory with a finish of 1 minutes, 57.10 seconds.
Hays then led for top-seven finishers for Platte County in the 200 freestyle, going 1:59.22 to set a school record. Bolling (2:12.83) cut 7 1/2 seconds off her preliminary qualifying time to place third with seniors Charlotte Hammond fifth and Ella Chiddix seventh.
Platte County senior Blair Bolling swims in the 200-yard freestyle during the Suburban Conference White Division Championships on Saturday at Gladstone Community Center in Gladstone.
Prior to Saturday, Hays held Platte County’s school record at 2:00.91 — set at last year’s Blue Division conference championship — then shaving nearly 4 seconds off of that in the White Division final. Yet afterward, she focused more on the overall picture than the individual accomplishment.
“I was really pushing everyone to have good energy — be motivated, be happy, cheer everyone on,” Hays said. “I think that’s the perfect start we needed, not just my record-breaking but the relay (win). Everyone was doing good at the beginning, so I think that really had a little boost to it.”
Stone, Shank and Platte County first-year freshman Ashleigh Cruce went 3-4-5 in the 200 IM to offset Grain Valley’s win in the event — a theme of the title-winning effort.
DeLay out swam her seed time in the 50 freestyle final (26.76) to split up Grain Valley’s top two in a critical finish, and Beatty and Judy were fourth and fifth and Chiddix seventh to again give Platte County more of a points cushion. The Pirates then went 2-3-5-7 in the 100 butterfly with Shank, Cruce, Hammond and junior Emilee Handke to again counter a win for Grain Valley. The Pirates also were bunched int he 100 freestyle with Beatty (third), Judy (fifth) and junior Jayden Benninghoff (sixth).
Platte County senior Samantha Teufel swims in the 500-yard freestyle during the Suburban Conference White Division Championships on Saturday at Gladstone Community Center in Gladstone.
Platte County then senior Samantha Teufel (fourth), freshman Adelaide Bonsignore (fifth), sophomore Sarah Howe (seventh) and freshman Erin Anderson (eighth) filled out the entrant list in impressive fashion for the 500 freestyle with Grain Valley having only one in the top eight.
“A lot of it was just all teamwork,” Judy said. “We had to push each other. We had to act as a business trip, this whole (meet). Even if we weren’t taking those top (places) — first, second — we were very close.”
Following the long-distance race, Platte County appeared all but set to finish off the conference title. However, the Pirates’ 200 freestyle team of three experienced seniors and a star junior put an exclamation point on the day.
Grain Valley entered with the top seed but trailed from the outset after DeLay’s strong opening leg with Judy only expanding the advantage from there. Beatty gave Hays a sizable lead for the anchor, and she wouldn’t be challenged.
Platte County sophomore Madeleine Stone swims her leg of the 200-yard medley relay during the Suburban Conference White Division Championships on Saturday at Gladstone Community Center in Gladstone.
“I feel like today we came in with a lot more confidence than we had (in preliminaries),” Judy said. “The vibe yesterday was just off, and we came in today, everyone was hyped up; everyone was excited.”
Platte County junior Alyson Stone added another A finalist finish for the Pirates, finishing sixth in the 100 backstroke with Madeleine Stone (third) and Benninghoff (fourth) in front of her. Hays then won her second individual race of the day in an impressive 1:08.25 with DeLay second at 1:12.46. After the race, the two shared a moment in the pool with what looked mirroring glances of admiration for the other and then an emotional hug.
“This is like the third year in a row we’ve swam breaststroke by each other at conference and at state,” Hays said. “I think that this race is just really meaningful to both of us, especially since this is the last time I’m ever going to be doing it at conference with Drew. It really did mean a lot, but there’s a deeper meaning than what it shows in that event.”
Platte County senior Madeline Judy swims her leg of the 200-yard freestyle relay during the Suburban Conference White Division Championships on Saturday at Gladstone Community Center in Gladstone.
Platte County’s team of Beatty, Benninghoff, Judy and Shank finished second to Grain Valley in the 400 freestyle relay finale. However, the Pirates cut 10 seconds off their third-place preliminary qualifying time to earn the runnerup spot — a fitting conclusion to the memorable day.
After collecting the team trophy and watching head coach Benjamin Rackers and assist Doug DeLay take a celebratory dip in the pool, Platte County’s group, which includes nine seniors, could not only revel in another goal met but start to look ahead to hopefully another successful state run.
“Tomorrow, we’re probably going to talk about it in the group chat,” Judy said.
Platte County finished 21st at state in Class 1 last year but ended up just 11 out of 16th.
The state currently takes the top 32 in each event with swimmers limited to two individual events and two relays or three relays if only qualified in one event, meaning those without a top-32 time could still end up swimming an individual event. The top eight times in preliminaries advance to the all-state championship final while the next eight go to the honorable mention consolation final.
Platte County currently has eight with at least one consideration cut, including first-timers Beatty, Bolling and Cruce. Of those, six are returning state qualifiers, and Hays, DeLay, Madeleine Stone and Shank have either all-state or honorable mention all state credentials either as individuals or part of top-16 relays. The Pirates are also guaranteed to send all three relays to Rec-Plex in St. Peters for the state meet, scheduled for February 17-18.
In 2021, Platte County finished a program-best ninth in the final team standings behind Shannon Banark — the best and most-decorated swimmer in program history — an all-state swim for Hays and four in the top 16 of the 100 breaststroke.
