Nearly every boys swimming program in the Kansas City metro — as well as Joplin and Warrensburg — converged on the Gladstone Community Center for the North Kansas City Invitational last weekend.
The two-day event wrapped up on Saturday, Sept. 19, and Platte County took 12th in the 20-team meet, which was held with athletes and coaches only and parents and media not allowed to attend. While the Pirates didn’t have many top-10 finishes — only two — they posted state consideration times in a handful of events.
“I felt we swam as well as we could,” Platte County coach Bret Anderson said. “Guys are getting into shape and dropping time. I felt like our times exceeded our expectations, so the bar gets to be raised even high for future meets.”
Rockhurst won the meet, while Park Hill South and Liberty rounded out the top three. Rockhurst was the Class 2 Missouri State Swimming and Diving Championships runner-up last year, while Park Hill South was third in Class 1.
The best finishes for Platte County a pair of relay teams taking ninth place.
The 400-freestyle relay team featured seniors Jacob Flynn and Ryan Dye, junior Dylan Bietz, and sophomore Collin Burton, which had a state consideration time of 3 minutes, 37.71 seconds. Dye, Burton, Bietz and junior Christian Yocklin made up the 200-yard medley relay team, which had a state consideration time of 1:52.00.
A state consideration time means the team is in the running for the state meet in St. Peters in November, but only an automatic qualifying time guarantees a spot.
Platte County had seven other state consideration times during the event, which had preliminary heats on Friday and the finals on Saturday.
Bietz added state consideration cuts in the 50 freestyle (12th place, 23.58 seconds) and 100 freestyle (18th/52.93). Burton added two as well, doing so in the 100 butterfly (16th/58.77) and 500 freestyle (15th/5:29.71).
Douglas Wallace made the consideration list in the 100 freestyle (47th/1:01.20) and was part of the 200 freestyle relay with Drake Lacina, Yocklin and Flynn (16th/1:45.59). Dye was 14th in the 100 backstroke (1:01.65) and that was another state consideration time.
Next up for Platte County is a trip to Lee’s Summit on Wednesday, Sept. 23, for a triangular against the host Tigers and Warrensburg.
Platte County Tri
Park Hill South was the runaway winner in a three-team meet on last week at the Platte County Community Center North in Platte City.
The highest finishes for Platte County in any event were a handful of third-place showings. The 200 freestyle relay team of Yocklin, seniors Luke Harms and Drake Lacina and Flynn (1:46.94) and 400 freestyle relay of Dye, Flynn, Burton and Bietz (3:47.13) were both third.
Bietz was third in the 50 freestyle (23.81), and Burton took third in the 100 freestyle (52.85).
