BY BOB LUDER

Park Hill South was supposed to dominate the Suburban Conference Mid Six girls swimming and diving meet last weekend, and that’s just what the Panthers did. In fact, their 542-point total was more than 200 points ahead of runner-up Raytown.

All the same, coach Tim Busenhart was impressed and pleased with his athletes’ performances.

“I was really happy with it,” Busenhart said. “We had a bunch of girls sick early in the week. But they exceeded my expectations, especially on Saturday when they were basically swimming their teammates.

“But they love competing. They don’t give each other a hard time, though.”

The Panthers added two more swimmers to their qualifiers for the Missouri state championships. Bailey Peterson made her state-qualifying times in both the 200- and 500-yard freestyle events, and Lyndsay Ryan qualified in the 50 freestyle.

Busenhart said he was most thrilled with the Panthers’ 200 freestyle relay team swimming a winning time of 1 minute, 44.59 seconds, breaking the school record for the event. That team will enter the state meet ranked ninth among times this season.

Bulldogs second

The Kearney girls swimming team finished second at the Suburban Conference Small Six meet last weekend.

Leading the way were Michelle Rickel, second in the 200-yard individual medley and fourth in the 100 backstroke; Mackenzie Porter, second in the 50 and 100 freestyle events; Emily Rigden, fourth in the 200 and 500 freestyle races and also swam on the 200 medley relay and 200 freestyle relay teams, both of which finished second.

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