FALL PREVIEW: Park Hill South Boys Swim/Dive

Park Hill South boys swimming finished their 2011 season with a conference title and the most points at a state meet in school history, tying them for their highest finish coming in at 4th place. Even with the loss of nine seniors from that team, the 2012 squad comes into this season looking to pick up where they left off with a goal of attaining another top four state finish this season.

“It’s kind of a transition year for us, but despite that, I think we should be pretty competitive,” head coach Steven De La Piedra said.

Seniors Liam Huffman, the Panthers most decorated swimmer last year who received all-state honors in four events, and Tom Prinslow, who finished 11th in the 500 freestyle, will lead Park Hill South as they represent the most seasoned individual swimmers. While De La Piedra will be able to rely on his top two seniors, he believes the rest of the team is looking real strong.

“We’ve got a good senior class returning, most of them are state qualifiers. Pretty solid sophomore class, and really good juniors,” De La Piedra said.

Other swimmers who had strong performances in 2011 and will again play key roles in 2012 include seniors Alex Heuton, Jacob Little, and Caleb Siebert. Junior Chase Riekhof and sophomores Travis Colpitts, Luke Lanning, and Ian Morgan will also be important parts to the Panthers success.

As the Panthers try to figure out each swimmer’s strength and where they might fit in best for the team, it is a continual process that lasts throughout the year. In fact, De La Piedra says he and assistant coach Tim Busenhart get excited about each season as soon as the last season ends.

“My assistant and I were looking over who we’ve got coming back and figuring out where people might fit, we do that from the moment state ends the previous year,” De La Piedra said.

“Each swimmer has their individual strokes and strengths, either they tell me or kind of ask what they’re good at depending on how they race. We just kind take a look at how they do over the course of the year and put our conference team together at the end.”

The Panthers will once again look to repeat as conference champions against new conference members Lee’s Summit West and Park Hill in 2012, leading the way for a chance at another top-four finish at state. They will get a good understanding of their early season progress towards those goals when they travel to Springfield in early September for the Top Dog Duals.