Rockhurst’s Missouri state title streak ends in swimming and diving
The streak is over.
After 11 straight Missouri boys swimming and diving team championships, Rockhurst couldn’t bring home No. 12. The Hawklets missed out on another team trophy with a fifth-place finish Saturday at the Rec-Plex.
“We had some really good swims and we had some disappointing swims,” Rockhurst coach Bob Barth said. “I was proud of how the boys responded. They really fought back down to the last relay. We had a chance to get third, and the boys put it out there but it wasn’t enough.”
Columbia Rock Bridge won the team title with 239.5 points, followed by Columbia Hickman (138.5), Cape Girardeau Central (137) and Park Hill (135). Rockhurst had 128 points.
Saturday’s finals produced four state records, including one in the 200-yard freestyle by Lee’s Summit North sophomore Liam Bresette. His time of 1:38.15 knocked Park Hill South’s Ricky Maestri out of the record books.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “I just put in so much hard work and training these past few years and it’s really paying off.”
Bresette won another title in the 500 free with a 4:29.90.
“I was planning on trying to get the state record (4:27.89), but I just didn’t have it in me,” he said.
Park Hill senior Marcin Glebocki was able to successfully defend his title in the 50-free with a time of 21.23.
“It was definitely nerve-racking, that’s for sure,” he said. “I just had to make sure I had my head in the game. I did do some simple mistakes yesterday that I knew I could fix today. In the end, it all worked out.”
Glebocki also swam the anchor leg of Park Hill’s first-place 200-free relay team.
In the day’s closest race, Oak Park senior Elliott Eisele-Miller swam a 56.87 in the 100-breaststroke, edging Lee’s Summit junior Sam Drew’s 56.88.
“I saw him on the 50 and I knew I was ahead, but I knew he always comes back hard, so I just had to keep it going and I just tried to hold on,” Eisele-Miller said.
Only one other area performer had a second-place finish, and that was Rockhurst senior diver David Knopke, who compiled 513.15 points but was edged out by Lafayette’s Matt McCool (516.35) for the second straight year. The Hawklets had three divers in the top eight to compile 41 of their points, but it wasn’t enough.
“My congratulations to Rock Bridge. They swam so well all season,” Barth said. “But, as I reminded the boys tonight, we have 364 days until prelims. We’re not gonna wait until August to prepare. We’re gonna start preparing on their own. We don’t want to feel like this again.”
This story was originally published November 7, 2015 at 9:22 PM with the headline "Rockhurst’s Missouri state title streak ends in swimming and diving."