SWIM & DIVE PREVIEW: Park Hill reloads for another state run

Park Hill boys swimming had a breakout and record breaking season last year when they finished a school high sixth at the state swim meet. A team which included nine seniors broke a handful of the schools long standing records and also earned several All-Metro selections. The Trojans will look to match that success in their 2011 campaign and in addition to a handful of returning varsity swimmers, hope to fill some roster spots with new faces.

Junior Matt Wagner returns after earning all-state honorable mention in the backstroke along with state qualifiers senior Matt Johnson, junior Vince Tutorino, and senior diver Connor Shene. Returning letterman Jared Alderman also will be a strong part of the team’s leadership this year. While coach Karl Haley will have some good athletes returning, he will have a smaller team than in the past.

“Our numbers are down this year, but we still have talent here to help out,” Haley said.

The numbers will only have a small impact on the team’s strength, which they believe will be in the relays. While they received all-state honors in all three events last year, a lack of depth will likely limit the team to compete strongly in just two of the events, one of which will be the individual medley.

“We’ll be strong in two of them, we’ll see if we have the depth for all three,” Haley said.

Their three biggest meets of the season will be the Independence and Webb City Invitationals along with the KC Classic October 15th which serves as a last chance ramp-up to the Conference swim meet the following weekend.

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.

SOFTBALL PREVIEW: Park Hill has created 'nice culture of softball'

In his fourth year as head coach of Park Hill softball, you get the sense that Stuart Sullinger is pleasantly optimistic about the path his program is on. Despite losing all-state catcher Michelle Rupard’s leadership behind the plate and .450 batting average, the Trojans return a core of players from last year’s .500 team. Overall, Park Hill has 39 players out for the team, one of the highest turnouts they’ve had in recent years. Nonetheless, Sullinger says he’s most proud of the family atmosphere his players have brought to the program.

“We’ve developed a nice culture of softball here,” Sullinger said.

Among those returning for the 2011 season are all-metro centerfielder K.K. Rettinger, all-region shortstop Betheny Sullinger, and second baseman Nikki Moss. The three will make up a strong middle core of the defense before what is likely to be top pitcher junior Mackenzie Porter. Porter and Audrey Allen, who has been battling an arm injury, will serve as the Trojans’ top pitchers, which according to their coach will have a big effect on the course of the team’s play this season.

“Pitching is what softball is about,” Sullinger said of it’s importance.

Also returning is junior third baseman Samantha Snodgrass. Joining as new contributors will be catcher/first baseman Lindsey Horseman and Samantha Downs who could also see some time behind the plate.

Park Hill has had some ups and downs throughout the last three seasons, but also racked up some quality wins at key moments in the season. In 2009, they advanced to the district title game where they eventually fell to Staley 3-2 in extra innings. Last season, they upset top seeded Kearney in the second round of districts to advance to the title game once again.

“Beating Kearney last year in districts was probably one of the bigger wins we’ve had in the last couple years,” Sullinger said. “That’s the great thing about districts. You can be zero and whatever, but as long as you’re moving in the right direction you’ve got a chance.”

With room for improve on both offense and defense, Sullinger believes what they worked on in the offseason will show dividends once games start.

“We had too many strikeouts last year. Our goal since last year’s banquet was to reduce that, so we’ve been in the hit gym a lot working on fundamentals and knowing what pitches are good and not. We’re stronger than we have been with offseason participation,” Sullinger said.

Overall, Sullinger says the program is ahead of the curve compared to years past. As far as the varsity specifically, it will be key for the players with varsity experience to provide a solid foundation for what the Trojans hope is a winning season.

SOFTBALL PREVIEW: Park Hill South ready to win on day one

Day one. Minute one. That’s when coach Josh Walker’s players started talking about winning their conference and district titles. After a 19-9 Park Hill South softball team finished one game behind Belton for a second place finish in conference and a heartbreaking 13 inning 1-0 loss to Truman in the district championship, there’s no doubt where the Panthers have set their goals for the 2011 season.

“We had a very good season, but it left us a little hungry,” Walker said. “We’ve got a great core of juniors and seniors coming back and we should be ok.”

South returns five starters with considerable talent and experience. Sophomore shortstop Courtney Todd, junior third baseman Mallory Land, senior leftfielder Brandi Weymuth, junior centerfielder Courtney Land, and senior rightfielder Kaleigh Burlington return for what develops as a team with a strong outfield and left side both offensively and defensively. Letterwinner Jessica Lee will look to take over the reins at catcher while Madison McDowell and Jordan Woodworth battle for the starting role at first play. Senior transfer Corinne Listenbee will be a solid presence at second. Makala Walker looks to be the favorite to take over the pitching duties for South ahead of four freshman pitchers who will compete to un-seed her.

Overall, the Panthers have a flexible lineup of athletes which will come in handy if the unfortunate case of injuries strike the team during the course of the season.

“We only have one girl that doesn’t play multiple positions,” Walker said. “If someone goes down to injuries, we’ll be able to fill-in and not miss a beat.”

Walker expects the defense and hitting to be there for his team based on the talent coming back from last season. This will be a team that will rarely make defensive errors and will just as unlikely to find themselves short on runs, which leaves a lot up to how well the pitching goes.

“Defense and hitting are supposed to be our strong suits,” Walker said. “I think both will be there, we just have to make sure the pitching is there. That’s the ultimate thing.”

With a strong schedule of conference competition, Walker knows it will be a tough road towards accomplishing their goals, but is impressed with the attitude his players have brought into the season, especially from his veterans.

“They’re just go getters and many have been playing varsity since they were freshman,” Walker said. “They’re taking it on themselves and taking ownership of it (their goals) before I even was able to say something about it.”

South will find out real quick what kind of team they have as they kick the season off at the Joplin Tournament against Bartlesville (Oklahoma), Carl Junction, and Neosho, two teams of which they’ve never beaten. Nonetheless, the Panthers hope they’re in a position come October to execute on the goals they’ve established so early in this 2011 season.

GIRLS GOLF PREVIEW: Park Hill looks toward return to state

Peaking at the right time is what every team hopes to when it comes to the end of each season. For the Park Hill girls golf team, the 2010 golf season was one in which they expected to do well, but surprisingly peaked higher than expected as they placed high enough in districts (3rd) to advance to sectionals to finish fourth, just two places short of qualifying the team for state. Despite falling short as a team, they still advanced two individuals to the tournament: then-senior Stephanie Atkinson and then-junior Bailey Warlen. Now a senior, Warlen returns with letter winner and fellow senior Anna Kloeppel for a 2011 season they hope isn’t as much of a surprise.

“Last year we weren’t planning on qualifying (for state) and we almost did, but this year I’d say we have a much better chance,” head coach Tari Garner said. “We’re just looking for that fifth and sixth golfer. We’ve got the top four, but we really need those next two spots to step up really bad.”

The third and fourth golfers Garner is referring to are freshmen Adrianna Elliott and Sidney Pollock, two newcomers who have brought a new sense of competition to the team which will help spur the fight for the final two varsity spots.

“It’s fun to have two freshmen on varsity because it kind of pushes the rest of the team,” Garner said. “That first tournament will be tough as it’s the first as higher schoolers for them, but when we get into the St. Joe and Drumm Farm tournaments we should be scoring really well.”

Still, the Trojans will lean on their senior leadership with Warlen and Kloeppel who have been playing varsity together for several years now and come into the season playing better than ever.

“Both Bailey and Anna’s games are looking really well,” Garner said. “Are both coming in really strong, and better than they finished at the end of last year.”

The team as a whole has focused particularly on their short game in early practice rounds. Although Garner preaches a balanced and rounded out approach to different parts of the game, she believes being comfortable close to the green will be an advantage.

“We’ve been working really hard from about 50 yards and in so they’re really confident with their short game,” Garner said. “I think it’s going to be better this year. We spend a ton of time on that by building in those pressure situations into our practice so they’re not just feeling it during the tournament.”

With the lesson of taking the conference tournament lightly last year in their mind, Park Hill hopes it won’t take a reminder to refocus on their state qualifying goal this year.

“I think coming out of conference not playing our best, and being frustrated, really focused us for districts and sectionals,” Garner said. “You’re always going to have days when you’re not at your best, but I think we’ll have a better chance at being in that top one or two spot this year.”

GIRLS GOLF PREVIEW: Park Hill South aims to defend

Park Hill South girls golf, a regular at the top of tournament charts over the years, is back to defend another conference title in 2011. In fact, the Panthers return all of their top varsity golfers from last year’s team for this season. So not only will they be looking to repeat at conference champs, but they’ll look to improve on their sixth place in districts to advance onto sectionals and then a potential state berth as well.

Returning for South this year is junior Lindsey Gile, senior Elizabeth Brown, senior Kelli Mulligan, junior Savannah Kutz, and sophomore Sydney Sanders. Gile, a two-time state qualifier who finished 59th at the state meet with a two-day score of 190, will lead the team as their top golfer. Coach Larry Torgerson, now entering his 22 year in coaching, hopes that in addition to the core group he has coming back, there will be some younger players that can step up and push the rest of the team to improve.

“Hopefully we can develop at least two or three of the younger players can challenge for a varsity spot to create competition within the team,” Torgerson said.

While Park Hill South will be the front runner in regards to the conference outlook, Belton has a young and improving team that could give the Panthers a challenge for the crown. More important for South is the amount of work they’ve put in over the summer playing that they hope will prove advantageous as the biggest tournaments approach at the end of the year. All five players either played in official 18-hole events or put in time to practice through lessons or casual play.

In a cram-packed schedule, the team will have plenty of time to improve and build upon their skills as their schedule consists of over 17 events in the nearly month long regular season leading up to the conference tournament on September 26th.

GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY PREVIEW: Park Hill running towards head of the pack

When Coach Jason Parr took over the Park Hill Girls Cross Country program last year his team set a goal to put themselves on a path towards previously uncharted success. With an extremely young squad and a high number of athletes out for the team, they experienced mixed results in their first year of new leadership. A first place finish in the Rim Rock Classic was followed by a third place finish at the conference meet, but with their true focus always on the state meet they lost momentum going into the final weeks finishing last in the sectional meet and qualifying only one runner for state.

“We ran Rim Rock and won it,” Parr said. “I was proud of them, but we kind of lost some steam there towards the end of the season.”

The good thing for Park Hill is they return nearly all their young varsity runners and will have about 70 teammates, only three of which are seniors, to compete against as they continue to focus on their steady growth as a program. Returning for the Trojans is their sole state qualifier and district title holder sophomore Kim Rau along with classmates Brooke Bischof, Maddie Bischof, Maggie Lanham, Joanna Grauberger, and Maddie Hemphill. Adding to the competition will be some new faces in Mercedes Robinson, Emma Gaiser, Paige Carey, Delaney Stevenson, Abby Muller, and Olivia Muller. Their young fire was evident over the summer and Parr believes it’s been consistent with not only their growth as a team, but as individuals.

“The girls really took initiative this summer to put some miles in. It just comes with maturity and being able to tell themselves, ‘I know in order to get better I’m going to have to train,” Parr said.

One area of importance, the Trojans continue to focus on is the team aspect of the sport. Running together in a pack instead of as seven separate individuals allows for a constant source of motivation.

“They’ve got to know what it’s like for seven girls to be in a pack that are pushing each other. Getting them comfortable knowing that there are six other girls pushing them,” Parr said. “You can’t have your top runner up front with everyone else in the middle. You’ve got to have a group up front, pushing from the beginning.”

While their coach says you’ll find the group full of a variety of free-spirited, fun, and caring girls, fellow competitors shouldn’t expect to hear them passing them from behind.

“They’re the quietest bunch I’ve ever had. You’re not going to hear a lot of hurrah and jumping around,” Parr said. “You’re going to see leadership by example from Kim Rau, Maggie Lanham, and Brooke Bischof. They don’t have to say anything; they just go out there and work hard.”

Park Hill hopes to compete well in the Missouri Southern Stampede in Joplin against over 100 teams in September. They’ll also be eyeing defending conference champ Lee’s Summit West this season for their own shot at the title, but they want their real success to be measured by what happens after the conference meet in sectionals and state. Experiencing small doses last year, they’ll be looking to take the program another step up this season.

“Our expectations are always the state meet. Some of our girls tasted that last year so they understand what it’s going to take to get there,” Parr said.

GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY PREVIEW: Park Hill South building program higher

Hoping to extend their success even further in the 2011, the Park Hill South girls cross country team welcomes back their entire varsity squad with the exception of one. A young team in 2010, the Panthers won the conference title and advanced two runners to sectionals, Hannah Carlson and Lizzy Jurries. Seventh year head coach Pam Jurgensmeyer has a group returning as a more mature and experienced team that is excited to see what results their work over the summer will yield.

“I believe we’ll perform better this year than last year just because the girls have put in a lot of work in the off-season. The girls who really want to get better, they were running all the time,” Jurgensmeyer said. “It was almost to the point where I needed to tell them to take a day or two off every once in awhile.”

Carlson and Jurries will be joined by returning varsity runners Lauren Blair, Anna Schaeffer, DeDe O’Toole, Kerry Maas, and Audrey Rothers. Other runners looked to compete for spots and pushing for the top of the pack will be juniors Hanna Walsh, Sam Carpenter, sophomores Danielle Black, Maddi Hannah, Olivia Ortiz, and freshman Madeline Homoly. With only brief exposure to some of the incoming freshman, South hopes some of those runners will also be competing for varsity and junior varsity positions.

Jurgensmeyer says they’ll be aided by strong leadership from a senior class of 15 and a high number of athletes coming out overall for the team. 49 athletes will create the competition the program needs in order to reach the next level of qualifying the team for sectionals and advancing individuals to state.

“We have a large group of girls that are interested in running and we have a lot of fun,” Jurgensmeyer said of the team’s general mood.

Their two most challenging tests will come at the Missouri Southern Stampede in Joplin and the KC Metro meet the week before the Conference race.

BOYS CROSS COUNTRY PREVIEW: Park Hill has core group returning

The 2010 campaign for the Park Hill boys cross country team produced mixed results for the Trojans. With their top two runners returning, a handful of guys hoping to fill in behind them, and a pretty hefty group of freshmen looking to try their athleticism in the sport, they'll look to move the team up a few places in the 2011 rankings.

"We did ok last year, we got a few guys coming back from our varsity," head coach Jon Davis said.

As young runners last year, sectional qualifiers senior Nathan Huffer and junior Kainen Utt will be looked to now to lead the pack for Park Hill. Huffer had several good outings last seaon including his 24th place finish at the Rim Rock invitational out of 155 runners and his sectional-qualifying performance in the district meet where he finished 19th out of 72 runners. Utt's best performance also came at districts when he was just a few seconds behind Huffer at 31st place. Senior Jon Steven, juniors Riley Fahrenholtz and Joey Walton, and James Adams will round out the top runners for Park Hill early in the season.

"We have a core group of guys that do things right," Davis said. "We need to have some early success for our kids to gain confidence and know that we can run with anybody in the conference or district. Our keys will be to get our kids to train and race together."

This season, Park Hill has a large freshman group of runners out for the team and Davis is looking for them to step up as well. While it's too early to tell who those runners will be, he's optimistic about the upcoming season.

"Last year we had a lot of young guys on varsity where it was their first time, so we hope they're able to improve and compete even more this year while also adding some guys," Davis said.

In addition to the big Liberty Invitational on September 3rd that kicks off the season each year, Park Hill's biggest and most telling meets will be the Rim Rock Classic and KC Metro meets which are on back to back weekends September 24th and October 1st.

BOYS CROSS COUNTRY PREVIEW: Park Hill South looks to build on success

Park Hill South will come into the 2011 boys cross country season with a conference title to defend. With standout runner James Bowlin graduated and now competing at Johnson County Community College, the Panthers come into this season with only a basic idea of what kind of athletes they’ll be throwing against the competition this fall.

Coach Brad Banning says his team has seen its share of highs and lows in recent years, but after last year he’s hoping they can build and continue the success.

“The past couple years have been kind of down, but now we’re hoping to be on the up,” Banning said.

Senior leadership will prove to be a foundation for what is otherwise considered a young team. Contributions will come from seniors Tim Albright, Barrett Hudson, Mitch McDonald, and Peter Thomas.

“A lot of the younger kids are probably going to be stepping up this year. We’re real young, but we’ve got a lot of numbers which is good. 50 runners is the most we’ve ever had,” Banning said.

Also returning are juniors Jacob Bowlin, Mason Homoly, and Lendon Calhoun.Young runners Banning sees promise from so far in the early days of the preseason from freshman Tucker Mellis and sophomore Keaton Murry. More individuals will emerge once the team gets into actual competition as the groups first event, the Liberty Invitational, usually serves as an official time trial and sets the teams for events moving forward.

“We are a younger team and I’d like to see us continue growing in numbers,” Banning said. “The future looks bright and I am excited to see what these young runners can accomplish this year.”

In addition to competing next to a strong Raytown team for the conference title, the Panthers would like to improve on last year’s sixth place finish to get into the top four. South’s key events they will focus in on are the Bishop Miege, the Joplin Invitational, and the KC Metro Classic.