BV West boys swim to 3rd straight Kansas crown; LS North diver wins Missouri title
Blue Valley West completed an undefeated season by winning the Kansas Class 6A swimming and diving boys state high school championship at the Shawnee Mission School District Aquatic Center Friday night.
The Jaguars won the meet comfortably, scoring 331 points. Their next-closest competitor was Olathe East, which finished with 252. Shawnee Mission East took third with 232.
“I’m just excited for these guys,” BV West head coach Tobin Sample said. ”They’ve worked hard all season, they did a great job, they had the focus for it.
“They sacrificed, they isolated themselves, they didn’t do a lot of things that high school kids get to do, normally.”
The championship marks a threepeat for BV West, which also won 6A state titles in 2019 and 2020.
“It’s a challenge, definitely difficult,” Sample said. “These guys had the focus to win a three-peat. They wanted to win EKL and they wanted to have an undefeated season, and they checked off all of those goals.”
BV West’s Kevin Glenn finished first in both the 100-yard backstroke and 200-yard individual medley. His efforts earned him co-athlete of the meet.
The senior put in two of the most impressive performances of the evening, turning in a 200 IM time of 1 minute, 52.48 seconds — over 5 seconds ahead of the runner-up — and clocking 49.54 in the 100 back, which broke his own state record of 49.68 from 2020.
“I felt good,” Glenn said. “I felt long. I felt smooth. I never tried to really rush any of my strokes — I just kind of knew what I was doing the whole time. I felt in control of what I was doing the whole time. I thought it was a really good swim.”
The Jaguars had top-three finishes in the 200 medley relay (first place), 200 IM (first), 50 free (third), 100 free (second), 500 free (third), 200 free relay (third), 100 back (first), 100 breast (first) and 400 free relay (first). Their 200-yard medley relay time of 1:34.02 was also a new state record, beating Blue Valley North’s 2015 time of 1:34.11.
The only swimmer who could match Glenn’s dominance and put a dent in BV West’s point total was Wichita East’s Drayden Bell, the co-athlete of the meet. The junior, who defended his state titles in the 100 free and 50 free, has won the latter event three years in a row. It was his second state title in the 100 free.
“I’m just really happy and really excited to maintain both of my titles in both of those events,” Bell said. “They weren’t the times I was wanting this year, but 100 free I still cut about a tenth or two, so can’t be too disappointed in that.”
Bell was hard-pressed in both races. He defeated Olathe East’s Micah Leslie by half a second in the 50 free and BV West’s Hunter Rey by 0.68 in the 100 free.
“I’m just trying to pay attention to me, make sure that my stuff is going the way that I wanted it to,” Bell said. “And then at the same time, I’ve got to make sure that I’m holding a strong enough pace to keep that lead, because if I’m not, someone might keep up behind me and I’m not paying attention and then all of a sudden that lead is no longer.”
One of the few events that wasn’t dominated by BV West or Bell was the 1-meter dive. Olathe East’s Charlie Matthews won that event with a point total of 446.55, besting BV North’s Spencer Eyen (441.50) and teammate Carson Kinsch (438.40).
Lawrence Free State’s Elliot Ahlvers pushed Matthews throughout the day, but Ahlvers had a rough go of it on his final dive, earning no points and dropping down to fifth place.
Two dives later, Matthews completed an inward double somersault for 41 points to seal his championship.
“(Ahlvers) got zeros — I was really disappointed for him, but it really helped me out,” Matthews said. “I was just thinking my jump had to be pretty good.”
LS North’s Valmassei claims Missouri dive title
Lee’s Summit North senior Annica Valmassei took home a Missouri 1-meter diving title Friday, scoring a cumulative 431.70 points in the Class 2 girls swimming and diving championships at the City of St. Peters Rec-Plex.
Valmassei will attend and play two sports (diving and track and field) at Davidson College in North Carolina this fall. Her older brother, Daniel, is a senior diver there.
Overall, Kirkwood dominated the Class 2 events with 291 team points; runner-up Eureka had 228 and Marquette rounded out the top three with 193.
KC-area schools in the top 10 included Park Hill South, sixth with 137, Lee’s Summit West, eighth at 134, and Liberty North, ninth at 115. Other notable individual showings from the KC area Friday included:
- Payton Easley of Lee’s Summit West, 50 free, third at 23.75
- Ainsley Dillon of Liberty North, 50 free, fourth at 23.82
- Megan Wells, Park Hill South, fourth in 1-meter diving
- Chloe Bowman, Park Hill South, fifth in 1-meter diving
- Ellie Hartwig, Liberty, 100 fly, third at 57.16
- Laney Weatherby, Lee’s Summit West, 100 fly, fifth at 58.85
- Avery True, Liberty North, 500 freestyle, third at 5:10.09
- Lee’s Summit West and Liberty North, fifth and sixth, respectively in 200 free relay
- Liberty North 400 free relay, fifth
The Class 1 finals were Saturday.
Kansas results (boys, Friday)
200-Yard Medley Relay
1st - Blue Valley West - 1:34.02
2nd - Olathe East - 1:35.02
3rd - Blue Valley Northwest - 1:37.75
200-Yard Free
1st - Caleb Musser, Blue Valley Northwest - 1:41.23
2nd - Sam Peterson, Blue Valley North - 1:42.37
3rd Keaton Kristoff, Olathe East - 1:42.60
200-Yard IM
1st - Kevin Glenn, Blue Valley West - 1:52.48
2nd - Fletcher Smith, Olathe South - 1:57.52
3rd - Evan Deedy, Shawnee Mission East - 1:57.54
50-Yard Free
1st - Drayden Bell, Wichita East - 20.42
2nd - Micah Leslie, Olathe East - 20.92
3rd - Ethan Evans, Blue Valley West - 21.39
1-Meter Diving
1st - Charlie Matthews, Olathe East - 446.55
2nd - Spencer Eyen, Blue Valley North - 441.50
3rd - Carson Kinsch, Olathe East - 438.40
100-Yard Fly
1st - Micah Leslie, Olathe East - 50.31
2nd - Caleb Musser, Blue Valley Northwest - 50.90
3rd - Riley Sirimongkhon-Dyck, Lawrence Freestate - 52.03
100-Yard Free
1st - Drayden Bell, Wichita East - 45.16
2nd - Hunter Rey, Blue Valley West - 45.84
3rd - Alex Savinkov, Shawnee Mission Northwest - 47.74
500-Yard Free
1st - Keaton Kristoff, Olathe East - 4:39.47
2nd - Sam Peterson, Blue Valley North - 4:46.25
3rd - Aidan White, Blue Valley West - 3:47.16
200-Yard Free Relay
1st - Olathe East - 1:27.07
2nd - Shawnee Mission East - 1:27.95
3rd - Blue Valley West - 1:29.45
100-Yard Backstroke
1st - Kevin Glenn, Blue Valley West - 49.54
2nd - Sam Pankratz, Blue Valley West - 51.96
3rd - Grayson Moyer, Blue Valley West - 53.02
100-Yard Breaststroke
1st - Ethan Evans, Blue Valley West - 57.80
2nd - Owen Krussow, Shawnee Mission South - 58.39
3rd - Evan Deedy, Shawnee Mission East - 58.40
400-Yard Free Relay
1st - Blue Valley West - 3:09.75
2nd - Shawnee Mission East - 3:15.66
3rd - Blue Valley Northwest - 3:17.56
Team Results
1st - Blue Valley West - 331
2nd - Olathe East - 252
3rd - Shawnee Mission East - 232
4th - Blue Valley Northwest - 144
5th - Shawnee Mission South - 131
6th - Olathe South - 117
7th - Wichita East - 115
8th - Shawnee Mission North - 112
8th - Blue Valley North - 112
10th - Shawnee Mission Northwest - 99
Missouri results (girls Class 2, Friday)
Team results
1. Kirkwood, 291
2. Eureka, 228
3. Marquette, 193
4. Parkway South, 180
5. Nerinx Hall, 155
6. Park Hill South, 137
7. Lafayette (Wildwood), 136
8. Lee’s Summit West, 134
9. Liberty North, 115
10. Timberland, 113
Also:
13. Liberty, 80
14. Lee’s Summit, 61
16. Lee’s Summit North, 59
19. Blue Springs, 29
20. Blue Springs South, 18.5
24. Staley, 9
25. Raymore-Peculiar, 8
T29. Park Hill, 2
200 medley relay
1. Kirkwood, 1:44.63; 2. Parkway South, 1:46.27; 3. Eureka, 1:48.27
200 freestyle
1. Brown, Kirkwood, 1:51.00; 2. Henriksen, MICDS, 1:51.62; 3. Lashley, Eureka, 1:52.81
200 individual medley
1. Sullivan, Parkway South, 2:04.20; 2. Punnewaert, Nerinx Hall, 2:05.10; 3. Reaser, Hickman, 2:06.54
50 freestyle
1. Schoessel, Eureka, 23.48; 2. Traube, Nerinx Hall, 23.70; 3. Easley, LS West, 23.75
One-meter diving
1. Valmassei, LS North, 431.70 points; 2. Liddle, Rock Bridge, 412.35; 3. Tolbert, Marquette, 395.05
100 butterfly
1. Sullivan, Parkway South, 55.07; 2. Dennis, Kirkwood, 55.65; 3. Hartwig, Liberty, 57.16
100 freestyle
1. Traube, Nerinx Hall, 51.42; 2. Schoessel, Eureka, 51.47; 3. Dillon, Liberty North, 51.76
500 freestyle
1. Brown, Kirkwood, 4:58.63; 2. Heveroh, Oakville, 5:08.71; 3. True, Liberty North, 5:10.09
200 freestyle relay
1. Parkway South, 1:36.74; 2. Marquette, 1:37.07; 3. Timberland, 1:39.14
100 backstroke
1. Pearl, Kirkwood, 55.77; 2. Henriksen, MICDS, 55.94; 3. Ackley, Timberland, 57.08
100 breaststroke
1. Dennis, Kirkwood, 1:03.94; 2. Henage, Parkway South, 1:04.66; 3. Punnewaert, Nerinx Hall, 1:04.68
400 freestyle relay
1. Eureka, 3:31.59; 2. Marquette, 3:32.16; 3. Kirkwood, 3:35.03
This story was originally published February 19, 2021 at 11:30 PM.