Platte County shows strength in capturing home invitational team title

Platte County didn’t put up attention-grabbing times and only won a single individual event but did show off the impressive depth on a talented roster while dominating the five-team Platte County Invitational on Saturday at Platte County Community Center North. The Pirates rolled up 560 points and bunched finishes over and over to top runnerup Raymore-Peculiar by 129.

Central (St. Joseph), Winnetonka and Marshall rounded out the field.

Platte County’s big points came in winning both the 200-yard medley and 200-yard freestyle relays, while coming in second in the 400-yard freestyle relay. Seven different swimmers made up those three quartets.

The lone individual victory for Platte County came from sophomore Ireland Shank in the 100 butterfly (1 minute, 8.36 seconds), while impressing freshman Ashleigh Cruce came in second at 1:10.82. Cruce continues to chase a Class 1 Missouri State Swimming and Diving Championships qualifying consideration cut. The Pirates produced a few season-best times but not any additional potential qualifiers.

Platte County senior Drew DeLay finished second in both the 50 freestyle (27.53) and 100 breaststroke (1:14.87) — just missing her season-best time in the latter. Pirates senior Madeline Judy came in third behind DeLay in the 50 freestyle at 28.39.

Other second-place finishers for Platte County included senior Lauren Beatty in the 100 freestyle (1:01.03) and sophomore Madeleine Stone (1:11.13). Beatty entered coming off a career-best 1:00.47 in the event the previous weekend to produce the first state qualifying cut of her career and finished just in front of third-place Judy in a season-best 1:02.99 — about a second and a half off of doing the same.

Platte County did all the work with star junior Brooklynn Hays not competing. The Pirates constructed relays without her, and Stone, DeLay, Shank and Beatty made up the winning 200 medley team (2:06.16), while Beatty, Judy, Cruce and DeLay won the 200 freestyle relay race. In the 400 freestyle, Judy, Cruce, Shank and senior Blair Bolling came in second at 4:16.73 — a new season-best state consideration time for that event. The Pirates’ previous best was 4:20.27 in the season-opening triangular.

Platte County also received third-place individual finishes from Beatty (200 freestyle, 2:20.86) and Shank (200 individual medley, 2:34.76). Beatty set a season-best in her performance. The Pirates also showed the newest scoring facet of the team with Stone (fourth) and Bolling (fifth) competing in the morning 1-meter diving competition.

Winnetonka Holiday Invitational

In the largest competition of the season so far, Platte County set seven season-best state consideration times the previous weekend at Gladstone Community Center. The Pirates were sixth as a team with 153 points — just 18 back of third-place Notre Dame de Sion but well back of the distant top two of Liberty North (315) and Staley (262 1/2).

Hays led the way with a pair of impressive freestyle performances.

In the 100, the all-stater captured an impressive individual victory in a field of nearly 100 swimmers. She turned in a career-best 55.28 and finished more than a full second ahead of runnerup Sania Cay of Winnetonka and more than 2 seconds in front of third-place Kaitlyn Ott of Liberty North. Beatty placed 10th with her state consideration cut, going just .02 of a second under the required mark.

In the 200, Hays placed third at 2:03.42, turning in the current No. 7 time in Class 1. Her 100 freestyle mark right now sits sixth.

DeLay also put up a pair of new state consideration cuts in what she considers her potentially her top two individual events. She placed sixth in both the 50 freestyle (26.61, about a second off her career-best) and the 100 breaststroke (1:14.69).

Shank’s strong run of showings in the 100 butterfly started with an 11th-place finish at 1:05.93, currently a season-best and about a second off her state consideration cut from her freshman season.

Platte County loaded up in the two shorter relays and placed fourth in both. The Pirates’ 200 freestyle team of Hays, DeLay, Judy and Beatty turned in a season-best of 1:47.68 — the No. 6 time in Class 1 — while the 200 medley team that also included Hays, DeLay and Judy plus Shank came in at 2:01.61. Their season-best from earlier in the year currently puts them eighth.

The 11th-place 400 freestyle team for Platte County of Beatty, Shank, Cruce and junior Jayden Benninghoff had a state consideration time but not the season-best.