PH South takes conference swim title

Park Hill South claimed the conference championship over Park Hill in the Suburban Conference - Red Division swim meet last weekend with 514 points. Park Hill came in second with 438 team points. Park Hill South notched first place finishes in five which included Liam Huffman in the 100 and 200 freestyle, Tom Prinslow in the 500 freestyle, and the 200 and 400 free relays with swimmers Alex Heuton, Chase Riekhof, Travis Colpitts, Prinslow, and Huffman.

Park Hill also secured five first place finishes which included Barry Chang in the 200 individual medley, Matt Wagner in the 100 backstroke, Kyle Allen in the 100 breaststroke, Vince Tutorino in the 100 butterfly, and the 200 medley relay team of Wagner, Allen, Tutorino, and Marcin Glebocki.

Both teams will now prepare for the state meet held in St. Peters, Missouri next weekend.

Panthers get second at KC Swim Classic

Park Hill South walked away with a second place finish at the Kansas City Classic over the weekend after falling just one point short of the first place winner Rockhurst, 291-290. New state qualifiers for the Panthers included Jacob Little in the 100 breaststroke and Tom Prinslow in the 100 freestyle. Park Hill finished seventh with a team score of 137 points. Both teams will have the next week off before competing in the conference meet next weekend, October 26th & 27th.

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.

Panthers take fourth at state swim meet

Park Hill and Park Hill South both competed in the state swim meet in St. Peters last weekend, but it was the Park Hill South coming home as the big winners with their fourth place finish, tying for the best finish in school history after racking up 173 total team points.

The Panthers placed high in most of the 12 events, but were led by second place performances in the 200 free relay and 400 free relay made up of swimmers Spencer On, Alex Heuton, Daniel Day, Jacob Fisher, and Liam Huffman. Huffman and Day added more to South’s points coffer when Day placed fifth in the final 200 individual medley and 100 butterfly races while Huffman placed fourth in the 200 freestyle and fifth in the 100 freestyle. The 200 medley relay team added a sixth place finish. Spencer Moran placed 10th in the diving portion of the competition.

Park Hill did not perform as highly as they would have liked with a total of 14 team points, but did see quality performances from the 200 medley relay team which placed 15th while Matt Wagner placed 16th in the backstroke. Connor Shene placed ninth in diving.

SWIM & DIVE PREVIEW: Park Hill South hoping to best 2010 season

Most teams would be ecstatic about the seventh place finish Park Hill South received in last year’s state meet, but the Panthers, a mainstay at the top of local and state swim rankings in recent years, weren’t quite satisfied with it. A disqualification prevented them from placing even higher, possibly resulting in a fourth of fifth place finish coach Steven De La Piedra says.

Despite losing eight seniors, they also return seven state qualifiers for the 2011 season. Not only will they return talent and experience, they have eleven new freshmen swimmers that are showing some promise for the future. This leaves De La Piedra with confidence about how will the team can do this year. In fact, they feel they can return to the state meet in November and retake what they feel is their rightful place among Missouri’s swimming elite.

“We’ve got a pretty good balance. There’s a lot of good leadership on the team, we’ve got a lot of young kids that are swimming fast,” De La Piedra said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we were in the top five at state this year.”

Reloading with new athletes each year is nothing new to Park Hill South, they’ve been able to build off local youth swim clubs in the area where kids are able to compete at a young age and become familiar with the kind of atmosphere high school meets will be like.

“We’ve got a really good system of summer teams that kind of feed into Park Hill South, so it gives us a lot kids each year that come in with swimming experience,” De La Piedra said.

Returning are junior state qualifiers Liam Huffman (100 freestyle and 200 individual medley), Tom Prinslow (500 freestyle), seniors Daniel Day (200 individual medley and 100 fly) and Jake Fisher (100 backstroke). Huffman will likely be strongest in those events again, but would be competitive in several events depending on where the team’s need for points come from. Aubrey Churchman also returns to vindicate a near miss at a state berth last year.

Something the Panthers hope gives them an edge this year will be the chance to score some high points in the diving portion of competition with senior Spencer Moran.

“I expect him to be in the top of the pack which will really help us out because traditionally we haven’t had a lot of diving points scored for us at state before,” De La Piedra said.

South has some of the toughest meets in the state on their schedule this season which will give them an early indication of where they rank to other teams in the state.

“The Ozark Invitational in Springfield will give us an idea of where we stand in the state. All the good teams swim in that meet except for the St. Louis teams. Two weeks later we’re scheduled for an invite in St. Louis and that will really tell us where we are compared to everyone else,” De La Piedra said.

PHS swimmers aim for 12th straight title

To say the Park Hill South Men’s Swim and Dive team is dominant might not be enough to describe the team’s success over recent years. Last year marked the 11th consecutive time the Panthers captured the conference championship. To top it all off, they tied the best finish in school history by placing fourth at state.

Head coach Steven De La Piedra seems confident his team will start where they left off last year with returning seniors Austin Cade, Grant Libra, and Kyle Gourley. All swam in the three relays that placed in the top eight at state last year. This earned them All State honors. Additionally, Cade placed 7th in the 100 meter butterfly and Libra finished 15th in the 100 meter backstroke. Sophomore Daniel Day qualified in the 500 meter freestyle and 200 meter individual medley. Kristian Harman also qualified in the 500 meter freestyle at state.

Look for all of them to be at the state level this season as well. Also watch out for freshman Liam Huffman to join them.

De La Piedra gives credit to his swimmers, “I’m lucky to have a group of boys that are disciplined enough to work out during the offseason and want to achieve higher goals than previous years.”

The team’s goals this season are without a doubt, to win another conference title and place in the top four at state once again.