Cape Central boys swimming team finishes third place at state for first time in school history

ST. PETERS, Mo. -- After posing for a picture they had only dreamed they would get to take, the Central boys swimming team kept uttering the same phrase as they went to pick up their gear.

"Wow."

The Tigers had just posed with the third-place trophy they earned with a brilliant two-day performance at the state championships at the Rec-Plex. Central compiled 137 points to edge past Park Hill (135) and Rockhurst (128) -- the 11-time defending champion program -- to attain the highest finish in the history of the program.

"We were hoping to maybe get into the top six and, if everything went our way, maybe fourth," Tigers coach Dayna Powell said. "But it has almost been a fantasy of a season. It just kept getting better and better."

The swim finals couldn't have started any better for the Tigers.

In the day's first event, junior Reagan Ragsdale, sophomore Sam Hahs, sophomore Brogan Davis and senior John Young completed the 200-yard medley relay in a time of 1:35.13. That was good enough to erase Rockhurst's state record of 1:35.19 from last year's finals, when the Tigers were eighth with a 1:41.87.

"It's just amazing we could come from eighth to first in one year," Young said. "We knew it was gonna be a close race. We just all did our best, and it turned out for the best."

Central swam a school-record 1:36.94 in Friday's preliminaries, but as it turns out, that was just a warm-up.

"We were real pleased with yesterday's swim, a school record, and we really thought we could all go a little bit faster," Powell said. "The guys weren't shaved until today, and they put the big suits on.

"This is our first boys relay champion ever in 26 years. They brought the game today. I've seen this group really come together. It was kind of the perfect storm. Everybody did their part, but having our senior bring us home like that, we'll never forget that race."

Davis had the Tigers' best individual finish with a second-place showing in the 100 butterfly. His time of 49.64 was just behind the 49.54 by Webb City's Jacob Schultz. It was the second straight year Davis came finished second in the event.

"I told my coach before this, I wouldn't be as mad losing to Jacob as I would anyone else in the field," Davis said. "Hey man, it was close all the way throughout, and I knew I had to stick with AJ (Iseman of Rockhurst, the defending champion) and Jacob to be up there with them at the end. I didn't close the way I wanted to, but you can't have everything go right."

Davis also had a fourth-place finish (51.41) in the backstroke. Hahs was fifth (58.63) in the breaststroke. Ragsdale was seventh (21.63) in the 50 freestyle. And the 400 freestyle relay team finished fourth (3:14.13) in the day's final event to seal third place.

The amazing part of the Tigers' finish was they did it with just a quartet of swimmers. The other top four teams' trophy pictures had upwards of 10-15 kids in them.

"We did that with four people, and we're graduating one of them," Powell said, "so we'll be hungry for another one of those (trophies) next year."

Team scores -- 1. Rock Bridge 239.5; 2. Hickman 138.5; 3. Cape Central 137; 4. Park Hill 135; 5. Rockhurst 128; 6. Eureka 124; 7. Lee's Summit North 118; 8. Chaminade 116; 9. Kearney 108; 10. Staley 72; 11. Lee's Summit West 71; 12. Kickapoo 69; 13. St. Louis University 68; 13. Kirkwood 68; 15. MICDS 52; 16. Liberty North 49; 17. Lee's Summit; 18. Webb City 43; 19. Lafayette (Wildwood) 41; 20. Blue Springs South 40.5; 21. Vianney 40; 22. Lindbergh 39; 23. Ft. Zumwalt West 35; 24. DeSmet 34; 25. Hannibal 32; 26. Oak Park 29; 27. Liberty 27; 28. Park Hill South 26.5; 29. Rockwood Summit 24; 29. Parkway West 24; 29. Glendale 24; 32. Pattonville 17; 33. Francis Howell North 16; 34. Ladue Horton Watkins 14; 35. John Burroughs 13; 35. Parkway Central 13; 37. Ft. Zumwalt South 12; 38. Clayton 9; 38. Raymore-Peculiar 9; 40. Hazelwood West 8; 41. Marquette 7; 42. Christian Brothers 4; 42. Warrensburg 4

Local finishers

200 medley relay -- 1. Cape Central (Reagan Ragsdale, Sam Hahs, Brogan Davis, John Young) 1:35.13

200 individual medley -- 21. Hahs (CC) 2:01.34

50 freestyle -- 7. Ragsdale (CC) 21.63; 39. Young (CC) 23.41

100 butterfly -- 2. Davis (CC) 49.64

100 freestyle -- 9. Ragsdale (CC) 47.73; 27. Young (CC) 50.31

500 freestyle -- 20. Jack Gard (J) 4:54.62

200 freestyle relay -- 39. Cape Central (Davis Deimund, Hyrum Dickson, Miles Frazier, Reed Dickson) 1:36.73

100 backstroke -- 4. Davis (CC) 51.41

100 breaststroke -- 5. Hahs (CC) 58.63

400 freestyle relay -- 4. Cape Central (Young, Hahs, Davis, Ragsdale) 3:14.67