Winter Roundup: Feb. 14-18

Park Hill Boys Basketball
The Park Hill boys basketball team was able to snap a four game lossing streak last Friday as they defeated Belton 73-56 in their final game of the regular season to improve to 15-10 on the year. With their top seed in the Class 5, District 16 tournament, the Trojans will face the winner of the Staley/Oak Park game in the semifinals of the tournament Thursday evening. A win would set up a title game against the Park Hill South/St. Joe Central winner on Saturday night at Oak Park High School.

Despite their fall from the top of the conference leader board over the last two weeks, Coach David Garrison hopes the victory on Friday night puts Park Hill on a new path towards winning a district title. A strong class of seniors will be the Trojans' key any title run and a disappointing semifinal loss to Oak Park last season will play into their minds as a source of motivation. Park Hill defeated Oak Park, Staley, and Park Hill South earlier in the season while the Trojans split their series with St. Joe Central. One thing Garrison knows is that with the teams in the district it will be very competitive.

"It's going to be a tough district, everyone has a chance to win it," Garrison said. "It's going to come down to whoever can get hot and execute in the 4th quarter of the game."

Park Hill guard Chris Nsenki scored his 1,252nd point of his career on Friday night. Currently, he is the third highest scorer in school history and only one of four players to have scored over 1,000 points.

Park Hill South Boys Basketball
As of press time, Park Hill South's district semifinal game against St. Joe Central was undetermined. The third seed Panthers have not faced the second seeded Indians this season. Coming into this week, the Panthers had won three of the previous four games. The defending district champs are 15-8 on the season after winning both of their final two games last week against Belton (78-47) and Winnetonka.

“The win gives us a share of the conference title with Raytown South,” Park Hill South Coach Anthony Perry said. “We finished up 8-2 in conference.”

“Our district should be very competitive with a number of teams having a chance to win it,” Perry said. “The players are very excited about the conference title and are looking forward to competing in districts.”

Park Hill South Girls Swim/Dive
The Park Hill South girls swim and dive team came home with a tenth place finish at the state swim meet last weekend. Their strength all year, the Panthers did particularly well in the relays with second and third place finishes from their 200-yard freestyle and 200-yard medley. The two relays are made up of Lyndsay Ryan, Rachael Norfleet, Mary Cate Reinert and Mariah Bryant in the medley along with Ryan and Bryant with Olivia McLain and Miranda Henderson in the freestyle. Park Hill South tied in team points with Blue Springs, the second best finish for a team from the Kansas City metropolitan area behind Notre Dame de Sion's sixth place finish.

Winter Weekly Recap: Jan. 3-8

Park Hill Boys Basketball
The Park Hill boys added two victories to their total last week to improve to 9-3. The two Suburban Middle Six victories against North Kansas City and St. Joe Central make the Trojans 3-0 as they head into an important three week stretch featuring a heavy conference schedule and the Basehor Linwood Tournament. En route to an 85-73 victory early in the week against North Kansas City, the two teams went into the fourth quarter tied at 66 before earning the final margin in a 19-7 final period for the Trojans. Chris Nsenki scored 31 along with Anthony Walter's 17, De'Aris Flint's 13, and Connor Farmer's 10 points. Park Hill was firing on all cyclinders Friday night against St. Joe Central as Coach David Garrison said it was one of the best performances his team has turned out all year as they defeated the Indians 77-60. The Trojans got out to a 36-22 halftime score before eventually extending it to as much as 22 in the third. Nsenki led in scoring again with 21 points along with Walter's 19 and Flint's 18. Park Hill benefitted from a tough defense that defended the paint fairly aggressively.

"It was really two things, our perimeter defense did real well at keeping the ball out of the paint, but then when it did get to the point we were working our tail off defending it," Garrison said.

With the loss of senior Brady Kreitzer for the season, Garrison says there are two players that he'll look to fill the void with Connor Farmer and Tre Durham.

"Between those two guys, just depending on the kind of matchups looks like, they'll be the guys that need to step in and play," Garrison said. "He's (Farmer) gonna sit on the block for us, he's going to rebound and score at the basket while Tre's a ball handle and will play the point for us, which takes pressure off Anthony (Walters), so he can score for us more."

With anywhere from 7-9 players that could start for the Trojans, depth has not been a problem. Garrison tries to use his players in situations that allow them to be most effective.

"It's a chess match, sometimes we try combinations that don't work, but other times its great. One thing we know with the people we have here, they're going to battle and not take any plays off," he said.

Park Hill Girls Basketball
After a 40-12 win over Liberty North earlier in the week, the Lady Trojans hoped to gain their first conference win against Truman last Friday night. A 23-11 halftime deficit put the Trojans behind in the first half, but they closed the margin in the third to narrow the lead to just 32-25. After playing a man defense in the first half, the second half was when Truman threw a zone at Park Hill. Although reacting to the defense and running their sets fairly under control, they weren't able to penetrate the basket enough to score as much as they would have liked.

"We didn't have the confidence to step up and make a shot," coach Aaron Neeser said. "We gave up the same number of buckets, they just got to the line more."

An intense fourth quarter cut the lead to as close as four, but the Patriots pulled away for a 42-30 victory. The Trojans are now 5-5 with a game against Lee's Summit West Thursday evening.

"I think what I'm most satisfied about is that they really care about each other. Usually when you have a new coach, you have a transition period where you struggle a little bit, but they're really buying into what we're doing. I like how hard we compete, we just have to get better at the little things," Neeser said.

Park Hill South Girls Basketball
The Lady Panthers improved to 4-6 on the season with a win on Thursday night against Belton 56-44. South outscored Belton in three of the four quarters before widening the margin with an 18-10 final quarter. They'll travel to Fort Osage on Friday night.

Park Hill South Boys Basketball
The Park Hill South Panthers hit a rough patch this week with two tough opponents in the likes of Liberty and Raytown who both dealt them close losses. The Wednesday night effort at Liberty left the Panthers with a 65-60 defeat. Traveling to Raytown on Friday evening, the Panthers found themselves with a 10-point fourth quarter deficit, but battled back before falling 66-63. Christian Hildebrandt led in scoring with 20 points along with Adam Schemenauer's 19. South is now 8-5 with a home game against Belton to conclude the week on Friday night.

Park Hill and Park Hill South Swim/Dive
Park Hill South ran away with their own invitational this past weekend at the Park Hill Aquatic Center as they racked up 298 points in the 15 team field of competition. Park Hill finished fifth with 105 points.

Top performers for the Panthers were first place finishes from the 200 yard medley relay team of Lyndsay Ryan, Rachael Norfleet, Mary Cate Reinert, and Mariah Bryant, Bryant in the 50 yard free, Hannah Bortnick in the one meter dive, the 200 yard free relay team of Shannon Brouk, Olivia McLain, Miranda Henderson, and Bryant. South will attend the Center Invitational over the weekend.

Top performances from Park Hill came from Brynn Guardado with first place in the 200 yard free and third in the 100 yard free, and Eleanor Parrott with third in the one meter dive. Park Hill has a meet at Raytown Wednesday evening and another next week at St. Joe Central.

Preview: Park Hill South Girls Swimming will compete to be KC's top team

Their ninth straight conference championship season left them with a 12-1 dual meet record and an eighth place finish at state including some of their relay teams being the top out of metro competition. Hoping to pick up where they left off they return a solid portion of that team this season in what Coach Tim Busenhart considers to be one of the strongest teams he's coached in his 11 years.

It's no surprise the Panthers' top priority is placing higher in the state meet than they did a year ago and the swimmers they have coming back are no strangers to competing on a high level. Lyndsay Ryan and Mary Cate Reinert have been on the All-State team three times along with Rachael Norfleet and Mariah Bryant who have been members twice. This strong group of swimmers will lead the way for Park Hill South. Newcomers Olivia McLain and Shannon Brouk will also add talent to their already accomplished teammates.

One thing Busenhart thinks will give them an edge this year is the depth on their team. A good problem to have, they just need to harness that depth to their advantage. They'll try different line-ups throughout the season to see which swimmers to strategically place in what positions so the Panthers have the strongest shot to place high at state.

"It's really just about figuring out who fits best where," Busenhart said. "We are strong across the board, but we're trying to find the right combinations."

While Park Hill South has faired well against Kansas City metro area competition over the years, in the realm of Missouri swimming, St. Louis is where many of the top teams come from. An opportunity to face some cross-state competition, the Panthers will travel to St. Louis and participate in a meet with MICDS followed by the Flyer Invitational the weekend of December 17-18. Other big invitationals include the Park Hill Invitational in early January along with the Raytown Invitational two weeks later.

Once again, they will be the ones to beat in their conference as it doesn't seem like an obvious contender stands out to seriously challenge the Panthers.

"We're probably the heavy favorite," Busenhart said.

In the end, the dates Busenhart and his team are looking towards is February 18 and 19 when they'll travel to St. Peters for the state meet where they hope to not only top their eighth place finish from last year, but possibly contend for the title itself.