Platte County’s super sophomores Deacon Gutshall and Palmer Keith took turns taking down program standard times and providing fervent teammate support to the other.
Platte County sophomore Palmer Keith swims in the 200-yard individual medley A Final during the COMO Invitational on Saturday in Columbia.
In what became a memorable weekend at the COMO Invitational, Gutshall took down the oldest school record on the board, while Keith toppled one of the newest — again bettering his own time. The Pirates placed a solid 16th in a top-tier 28-team field in Columbia, mostly on the strength of the two individual finalists and a pair of top-16 relays.
Keith went first in the preliminaries of the 200-yard individual medley on Friday. He qualified for the A Final (top eight) with the fifth-fastest time at 1 minute, 59.27 seconds and bettered his previous school record of 1:59.57 from last season’s Class 1 Missouri State Swimming and Diving Championships.
Despite going slower in the 200 IM finals at COMO (2:00.17), Keith held the fifth-place finish for the best individual Platte County showing on the weekend. He first set the school record in the event as a freshman, topping a mark Nathanial Savage set in 2009 at Raytown and has now slowly lowered the mark by more than 4 seconds breaking his own mark at last year’s Suburban Conference Blue Division Championships and state before besting that over the weekend.
Platte County sophomore Deacon Gutshall swims in the 500-yard freestyle during the COMO Invitational on Saturday in Columbia.
Incidentally, Gutshall also took a school record away from Savage — this one the 500 freestyle mark he set in 2008.
Gutshall recently became the second in Platte County history to go sub-5 minutes in the event during the preliminaries of the recent North Kansas City Invitational, leaving him just off the 14-year-old record. With no preliminaries, he turned in the No. 8 time in the 500 freestyle at COMO at 4:53.78, laving no doubt about the record by closing with an impressive 28.43-second split in the final 50 yards.
During his laps, Platte County coaches Brett Anderson and Doug DeLay along with Keith and others could be seen on the edge of the pool deck frantically encouraging Gutshall to hit the mark. His time now ranks sixth in the state for Class 1 at this point in the season, impressive after he truly leaned into the longest event to make an individual state debut as a freshman, nearly making the state B Final and coming back this year with an increased focus and newly discovered specialty.
Platte County senior Carson Howe swims the freestyle during a triangular Tuesday at Platte County Community Center North.
Keith and Gutshall also made the B Final in second individual events.
Qualifying 12th out of the 100-yard breaststroke at 1:02.64, Keith ended up placing 15th in 1:03.25. Gutshall came back from his record-setting swim in the 500 for the 100 backstroke finals where he finished 16th at 58.24. In preliminaries, Gutshall set a career-best 57.09 after entering with a seed time of 1:00.50 meaning the weekend produced his first two sub-1 minute times in the event.
Gutshall now ranks No. 18 in the state for Class 1 in the 100 backstroke.
Platte County then closed the meet in style, placing 10th in the 400 freestyle relay with a season-best 3:26.69 — now ranked No. 7 in the state. Keith, Gutshall and seniors Gage Jonkman and Collin Burton made up the team for the Pirates, who qualified 12th but moved up two spots with the impressive finals showing.
Platte County senior Collin Burton swims the freestyle during a triangular Tuesday at Platte County Community Center North.
Keith, Gutshall, Burton and senior Carson Howe made up Platte County’s 200 medley relay, which also set a season-best in preliminaries at 1:46.22 and then placed 15th in the B Final at 1:46.90.
Platte County put up a large number of season-best state qualifying consideration times on the weekend during preliminaries. The top 32 individuals and relays make the field at the end of the year, but swimmers can only participate in a maximum of two individual events.
Burton came in 36th in the 100 butterfly preliminaries at 58.75 and now ranks 39th in Class 1 for that event, while junior Brayden Carter posted his first ever state cut with a career-best 1:00.46 — beating his previous season-low of 1:03.50 by more than 3 seconds.
Howe moved up to 47th in Class 1 in the 50 freestyle at 23.53, coming in a tie for 39th in the COMO prelims.
Platte County senior Weston Grimes swims in the 100-yard breaststroke during a triangular Tuesday at Platte County Community Center North.
Gutshall even put up another state cut in the opening leg of the 400 freestyle relay, posting a 52.52 100 split that counts as a season-best time in the 100 freestyle. Jonkman came in 33rd in the 500 freestyle at 5:23.95 — about 10 seconds off a career-best from his junior year but posting his lowest state qualifying time of this season.
Platte County Triangular
Platte County racked up points and finished second behind Park Hill but in front of Kearney during a meet Tuesday at Platte County Community Center North. The Pirates finished second in all three relays but recorded a win in just one of 12 events.
Jonkman placed first in the 100 butterfly in a season-best 1:05.48 and added a runnerup showing in the 200 freestyle (2:01.03). Gutshall turned in the notable performance of the day with athletes mostly in secondary events with Keith out. Gutshall finished second in the 200 IM with a career-best time and state consideration cut of 2:12.63.
Other second-place finishes included Burton (500 freestyle, 5:26.38), Howe (100 backstroke, 1:05.08) and Grimes (100 breaststroke, 1:14.72).
