Missouri State-bound swimmer Robbie Hill of Oak Park headlines Class 1 state meet

Robbie Hill can remember the turning point.

“It all started coming together after CoMo,” the Oak Park High senior swimmer said of the annual CoMo Invitational swim meet on Sept. 28. “That was like two months ago, so it’s crazy that all of it came together. I knew I could do some special things at state.”

Did he ever.

Hill won a pair of state championships — and set new records in both events — to highlight a memorable day Friday at the Class 1 boys swimming and diving championships at the St. Peters Rec-Plex.

“It’s really exciting, but I don’t think it’s all set in yet,” the Missouri State recruit said. “It’s more than I could have asked for. I was not expecting this coming into senior year.”

Hill’s big meet actually began Thursday, when he broke the Class 1 record in the 100-yard backstroke. His preliminary-round time of 49.28 seconds, shattered the mark of 50.89 set by Cape Girardeau Central’s Jacob Bening at last year’s state meet.

But that was just a prelude to something bigger in the finals. Hill not only re-set his own record that was barely 20 hours old, but he also set a new overall record with a time of 48.98, narrowly eclipsing the four-year-old mark of 48.99 by Vianney’s Nick Alexander, who is now an All-SEC second-team swimmer at Mizzou.

“He is a pure X-factor racer and we’ve been waiting three months for that race,” Oak Park coach Ian Johnston said. “He knew what he needed to do and he just went out and did it. The state record was just the icing on the cake.”

Hill also set a Class 1 record earlier in the meet with a 1:48.62 in the 200 individual medley. Cape Central’s Brogan Davis held the previous mark of 1:49.01.

Hill finished a whopping 4.37 seconds behind Battle’s A.J. Huskey in the 200 IM last year at state. This year, Hill dropped more than five seconds off his time from a year ago and edged Huskey by two-thirds of a second.

“I’ve been second my whole life. I just put in a little bit extra work and it paid off,” Hill said. “It’s kind of crazy looking at where I was even for junior year. There’s no way I thought I’d be anywhere close to that.”

Park Hill South earned its highest team finish in school history with a third-place showing. The Panthers had finished fourth three previous times, the most recent coming in 2011.

“We had a goal of getting a trophy this year and we knew we realistically had a chance at that,” Park Hill South coach Tim Busenhart said. “We swam our best times in almost every single event both days and that’s all you can ask for.”

Panthers sophomore Alec Enyeart helped the cause with a second-place finish in the 500 freestyle, swimming it in 4:35.86, which was more than 14 seconds head of his sixth-place 500 time last season.

“It was a really good season. I’m really happy with how I swam,” said Enyeart, who was also fourth in the 200 free. “I think next year I’ll be able to go after the record and be under 4:30.”

Park Hill South also got a second-place showing from junior Greyson Langer in Thursday night’s one-meter diving finals and a pair of third-place finishes from junior Ethan Roach in the 100 free and 100 backstroke.

Smithville junior Nathan Noll had a pair of top-three finishes, coming in second in the 100 butterfly and third in the 200 free.

“I did not do what I wanted to do at all. I thought it was pretty bad,” Noll said of the 100 fly. “I thought (the 200 free) was a good race. I was a little tired after the relay, but I’m happy with it.”

The Class 2 finals are Saturday.