Platte County jumps back into action at KC Classic, followed by senior night

Six seniors were able to fully enjoy the sentiment and laughter of an annual tradition.

On Tuesday, Platte County honored Brooklynn Hays, Jayden Benninghoff, Alyson Stone, Emilee Handke, Addison Sloan and Carmen Cavallo during a low-key triangular with Smithville and Summit Christian at Platte County Community Center North. Sure, the Pirates dominated the proceedings and recorded victories in nine of 12 events, but the true highlights were in the senior night presentations and ceremonial splash into the pool — at least three cannonball jumps included — in the middle of the meet.

“It was really nice to be able to actually be in it because I really looked forward to it whenever I got to give the seniors their gifts last year as a junior,” Benninghoff said. “Just go through it and see everyone get emotional, I was really excited for it to be me and get to see how it actually felt in that position. It was really cool.

“We (didn’t) really have to focus on anything else because we’re just kind of swimming to swim and doing the senior night as the big part of our meet.”

Platte County appears to have come out of a difficult month of stops and starts, having competed just twice over the two week holiday break and then enduring postponements and cancelations to start this month due to inclement weather.

However, Hays did turn in a record-setting performance in a triangular with Belton and Raymore-Peculiar on December 28, breaking Drew DeLay’s 2021 mark for the fastest time in the 500 freestyle. Hays finished in 5:35.92 to lower the school record by about 5 seconds, adding to the new standard she set in the 200 freestyle earlier this season.

“She’s great; I love Brooklynn,” Benninghoff said. “It is really nice to see her doing all these great things, and I really do look up to her with all the things I want to do. She’s a great club swimmer; she’s a great swimmer overall, and it’s just really nice to be able to cheer her on.”

The first competitive situation after that came over this past weekend in the two-day KC Classic — a quick but successful reintroduction for a roster still piecing together combinations while replacing last year’s record-setting senior class.

“I feel like we’ve had a lot of time off, but we had the KC Classic this weekend,” Benninghoff said. “It was really a big meet; it was a two-day long meet, and we’ve been working really hard for that so I feel like that got us tired again. But all the days before we had the snow days and the breaks and it has been kind of hard to get into that rhythm to keep those times that we wanted.”

Tuesday’s triangular certainly didn’t produce an overwhelming amount state qualifying consideration times or PRs but did produce some competitive situations.

Most notably, Platte County’s top two 400 freestyle teams squared off in the final race with Benninghoff and Hays bookending a victorious effort with sophomore Ashleigh Cruce and freshman Mackenzie Johnson (4 minutes, 12.68 seconds) that ended up a season-best now ranks No. 26 in Class 1. The Pirates’ team of Stone, junior Ireland Shank, sophomore Adelaide Bonsignore and freshman Ronnie Benford came in second at 4:36.36 but led for portions of the first half of the race.

“It’s nice to be able to swim next to those (teammates) because you know their times so you can base yourself off of them,” Benninghoff said. “You can race in your minds between those two because you’re just teammates.”

Platte County’s victories were spread out with Hays (50 freestyle, 26.27; 100 freestyle, 59.85) and Stone (100 backstroke, 1:16.60) representing the seniors in swimming events. In addition, Bonsignore (500 freestyle, career-best 7:08.94) and Benford (200 freestyle, 2:28.74) also claimed first in one race apiece. This shows off the Pirates’ balanced setup heading into a stretch run that will include a push for a sixth straight Suburban Conference title and second in a row since moving up to the White Division and another strong Class 1 MSHSAA Championships push after placing 16th at state as a team in 2023.

The relay sweep for Platte County also included Benninghoff, Hays, Cruce and Pegler in the 200 medley (2:02.28) and Benford, Johnson, Pegler and Shank in the 200 freestyle (1:55.03).

Platte County’s senior class includes an unquestioned all-state star in Hays, a four-year contributor and prior qualifier in Benninghoff and seasoned veterans in Stone and Handke, and first-year participants in Cavallo and Sloan, who has picked up 1-meter diving and won the event with a career-best 133.65 score on Tuesday over freshman teammate Thais Thompson. This sextet looks to keep up tradition while understanding that Shank, Pegler, junior Sarah Howe, Cruce, Bonsignore, sophomore Erin Anderson, Benford and Johnson represent the next generation, looking to follow the set example for excellence.

“We’re leaving it in good hands,” Benninghoff said.

KC Classic

Hays recorded two elite individual finishes and moved up the Class 1 state leaderboard in the process during Saturday’s finals at Gladstone Community Center.

Platte County piled up 100 points total and came in eighth out of 15 teams in the two-day competition, putting two of three relays in the A final while four individuals advanced out of preliminaries to place in the top 16. Hays led the way with a runnerup showing in the 100 breaststroke (1:08.11) and a third-place in the 100 freestyle (54.91). She recorded season-best times in each finals race and currently unofficially owns the No. 2 and No. 3 state consideration time in Class 1 for those events, respectively.

The top eight in each event qualified for the A final, and Cruce just missed that cut in the 100 butterfly. She ended up placing ninth in 1:06.30 — a new season-best state consideration cut — while Shank came in 16th in the same consolation race at 1:09.76, which was a tick slower than her prelim time.

Shank also made the B final in the 200 IM and cut almost 5 seconds from prelims to her 2:36.56 effort Saturday that placed her 13th overall. Benninghoff rounded out Platte County’s place winners, coming in 14th in the 100 backstroke (1:09.31). She was also faster in her preliminary race Friday (1:09.31).

Platte County’s 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays both set season-lows and unofficially moved into the top 20 of Class 1 times. The medley group of Benninghoff (backstroke), Hays (breaststroke), Cruce (butterfly) and Pegler (freestyle) made a big push to 15th on the current published list, placing sixth at the KC Classic in 2:01.00 and knocking more than 2 seconds off the previous season-best. The Pirates were seventh int he 200 freestyle relay 1:50.24 — about a half second faster than in preliminaries with a team of Hays, Pegler, Cruce and Shank.