Platte County senior Drew DeLay and junior Brooklynn Hays have shared many memorable finishes together over the past three years.
The finale may prove to be the most unforgettable as their paths prepare to separate moving forward. DeLay capped her accomplished career Saturday with a season-best time in the 100-yard breaststroke and finished 10th in Saturday’s consolation final of the Class 1 Missouri State Swimming and Diving Championships. Shortly after, Hays continued adding to her accolades with her second individual all-state performance of the meet at Rec-Plex in St. Peters.
Platte County’s top two swimmers scored team points in three total events and combined with a pair of consolation finalist relays to push the Pirates into a tie for 16th in the final team standings. That marked a step back up after being 21st in 2022.
Hays led the way, placing sixth in the 100 breaststroke and seventh in the 100 freestyle to earn the second and third individual all-state medals of her career. DeLay became a four-time honorable mention all-state performer in her best event.
Platte County put the strength of three qualifying relays into the 200 medley and 200 freestyle teams. Hays and DeLay swam on both, combining with sophomores Madeleine Stone and Ireland Shank to finish 13th in the medley and parting with seniors Madeline Judy and Lauren Beatty to place 14th in the latter.
DeLay and Hays have been the driving force behind Platte County’s state accomplishments the past two seasons. Now, one moves on to college pursuits, while the other will look to continue an unprecedented run of success.
A four-time state qualifier, DeLay turned in the 11th-fastest time in Friday’s 100 breaststroke preliminaries and then bettered that in the final, finishing in 1 minute, 10.94 seconds to move up to 10th. That tied her career-best state placement in the event from her sophomore year to go along with 14th place as a freshman and 15th as a junior.
DeLay also qualified this year in the 200 freestyle and placed 28th in preliminaries. She also competed at state in the 50 freestyle as a junior and 200 freestyle as a freshman.
Already the first freshman in Platte County history to earn all-state honors, Hays now positions herself to join program standard-bearer Shannon Banark — a 2021 graduate — as the only swimmer to have three seasons with a medal in an individual event. She enjoyed the best meet of her career to this point.
Hays qualified seventh out of preliminaries for the 100 freestyle and finished in the same spot, going slightly slower in the championship final (54.94). She held the No. 5 seed in the 100 breaststroke and came in sixth (1:09.12).
In previous state meets, Hays placed eighth in the 100 breaststroke as a freshman and then added honorable mention all-state showings as a sophomore in that same event 11th plus the 50 freestyle (12th). She qualified in the 50 freestyle as a freshman but did not qualify for the finals.
In addition to individiual successes, DeLay swam on two state relays in her freshmen, sophomore and senior seasons plus three as a junior when COVID-19 protocols limited the number of qualifiers to 24 per event. Without a second individual swim, she was free to be on all three relay quartets.
Platte County ended up with a 12th-place 200 medley and 14th-place 200 freestyle in 2019-20; fourth-place 200 medley, seventh-place 400 freestyle and 200 freestyle in 2020-21; and 13th-place 200 freestyle and 15th-place 400 freestyle in 2021-22. All included DeLay and when adding in this year’s two consolation final swims, DeLay finishes her career with two all-state and 10 honorable mention all-state performances total to her credit.
Hays was also on both honorable mention quartets in 2021-22 and the seventh-place 400 freestyle and qualifying 200 freestyle team as a freshman, giving her four all-state medals and six honorable mention showings in her first three years.
Platte County’s 200 medley relay this year finished the consolation final in 1:58.54, and Stone added to her 400 freestyle relay honorable mention finish from 2022, while Shank swam in a final for the first time. The Pirates’ 200 freestyle team against finished in honorable mention spot, placing 14th in 1:45.01 with Judy in the lineup for the second straight year and Beatty swam at state for the first time, placing in the top 16 in her one chance.
Beatty, Judy, Shank and junior Jayden Benninghoff made up Platte County’s 400 freestyle team that finished 25th in preliminaries. Benninghoff made her state debut in the race. Pirates seniors Blair Bolling, Ella Chiddix and Samantha Teufel all served as relay alternates. Only Bolling previously qualified, swimming on last season’s 200 medley team that did not advance out of preliminaries.
In addition, Stone swam in the 200 individual medley preliminaries (32nd) after qualifying in that event plus the 100 backstroke as a freshman. Shank earned a spot in the 100 butterfly state field for a second straight year, placing 31st in Friday’s preliminaries.
DeLay, Judy, Bolling, Chiddix, Teuful and the rest of Platte County’s senior class were part of four straight Suburban Conference titles — the first three in the Blue Division before moving up this season and taking the White Division crown. The Pirates have won five straight overall.
Hays, Stone, Shank and Benninghoff will lead the core looking to continue that streak along with seeking more state success next year.
Platte County finished with 46 points total this season and ended up just 13 points out of 13th. The Pirates totaled 37 in 2022 after recording a program-best ninth-place showing in 2021 with Banark, DeLay, Hays and others setting a new standard for others to follow.
