Park Hill South’s girls swim and dive team are the Missouri Class 2 State champions — again.
After claiming the pro- gram’s first state title last year, the Panthers swam in record-breaking time to claim the back-to-back title on Friday, Feb. 21, concluding the two-day championship event at the City of St. Peters Rec- Plex in St. Peters, Mo.
“Having that first one makes you believe you can do it again,” Panthers head coach Bill Busen- hart said. “It’s a different type of special. Going back-to-back is really dif- ficult to do. It’s good to see the new kids that got to join us this year and the seniors come home with the title.”
The Panthers scored 337.5 team points, the sixth-most in the 50-year history of the compe- tition and nearly 170 points more than sec- ond-place Kirkwood. Park Hill South was the first team to win all three relays since 2008, a goal they had set out for after winning two last year.
Senior Natalie Dunaway and junior Elizabeth Lunduyt shined with three individual state titles in addition to the
three-team relay cham- pionships. Dunaway won the 50-yard freestyle 23.23 and 100-yard free- style at 50.87. Lunduyt’s title came in the 100-yard backstroke at 56.27.
The Panthers’ 200-yard freestyle relay team — which consisted of fresh- man duo Ashlyn Hines and Avery Hogue and seniors Dunaway and Charlotte Sander — set the new state record to claim first in the category for the second straight year. In the champion- ship race, they clocked in at 1:36:09, beating out the previous state record of 1:36:22.
“It’s one of the things we had been talking about all year,” Busen- hart said. “We were 0.03 off the time at the Co- lumbia Invite. That was just a goal of getting that relay record broken. It was really cool for those girls; having two fresh- man and two seniors rep- resenting the old guard and new guard.”
Landuyt and Molly Henry joined Hines and Sander to claim first in the 200-yard med- ley relay for the second straight year with a time of 1:46.89. The Panthers also took home the 400-
yard freestyle relay with a time of 3:32.26 from the team of Henry, Hogue, Landuyt and Dunaway.
Park Hill South also became the first team to double the second-place score since the state meet expanded to eight lanes in 1999 — and just the second school to achieve the feat since 1989.
The back-to-back cham- pion Panthers received royal treatment when they returned to school on Monday, Feb. 24, with the championship tro- phy touring the school escorted by the drum- line.