MSHSAA BOYS STATE CHAMPIONSHIP
- Hosted at the St. Peters Rec-Plex, St. Peters, MO
- Friday and Saturday, November 4th and 5th
- MSHSAA Championship Central
- Psyche Sheet
- NFHS Network Live Video
Last year’s Missouri High School State Championship saw the two teams from Columbia, Rockbridge and Hickman, take first and second place with Cape Girardeau Central just 1.5 points behind. Four state records fell in 2015, and one of them has already been bettered this season by one of the top contending teams, making the anticipation for this year’s MSHSAA meet that much more exciting.
Heading into the 2016 Missouri boys championship it looks as though Rockbridge is in a good position, with strong leadership and relays, to defend their title. This time though, the Tigers from Cape Girardeau Central seem to have the star power, and Blue Springs South the depth, to make the chase for the trophy extremely interesting.
Rockbridge returns state finalists Zach Lorson, Dane Florea and Caleb Rhodenbaugh to lead their squad. You can bet with all three of them entered with top 4 seeds in their best events, and none of them owning an individual MSHSAA title, that this group will still be hungry to excel. Lorson is the top seed in the 200 freestyle, and Florea is entered at third in the 200 IM and second in the 500 free. Rockbridge is the second seed in the 200 medley and 400 free relays, with their 200 free relay needing to move up from 9th to make the impact they will need to bring the trophy back to Columbia this year.
Blue Springs South has already turned in a 200 freestyle relay fast enough to have won the 2015 championship, and are entered over a second and a half faster than anyone else in the field. Their roster may be the deepest, with Chase Graham, Ben Morgan, Kyle Hepting and Nick Keller all entered in the top 8 with two events each, and the 5th place seed in the 50 free, Jake Workman looking to fill a spot on all three relays. Their medley relay is the 6th place seed and their 400 free relay is 19th, but with this impressive crew it is a good bet that relay will move up when it counts. The Jaguars also have the maximum of four divers qualified, which may give them a serious advantage over all other teams in contention.
Cape Girardeau Central may have the most impressive line-up heading into the meet, led by senior Reagan Ragsdale who owns the top seed in both the 50 and 100 freestyles. Brogan Davis was the state runner-up in the 100 fly at the 2015 meet, and enters the event with a clear lead over the rest of the field as he is the only athlete to have dipped below the 50 second barrier so far with his 49.90 entry time. He is also the 2nd seed in the 200 IM as well. Jacob Bening and Sam Hahs are both also in striking range of A-finals in two events with Bening at the 4th seed in the 100 back and Hahs the second seed for the 100 breast. When joined with Daniel Seabaugh, Hyrum Dickson and Truman Vines they make deadly relay teams. They are the top seed in both the 200 medley and 400 free relays, with the medley already a full second faster in season than the MSHSAA record the Tigers set last year with their seed time of 1:34.15 from the COMO Invitational last month at Mizzou.
Anther notable athlete to watch is Liam Bresette from Lee’s Summit North who was a double state champion in 2015 for the 200 and 500 freestyles. This year it appears he has chosen to forego defending his title in the 200 free by entering the 200 IM. That means he has chosen to drop an event in which he holds the MSHSAA state record (1:38.15,) to swim a race where he is entered at the 5th seed with 1:57.54, just under five seconds behind the top entry. If the psyche sheet is accurate, this is a bold move by Bresette.
Other event leaders are Sam Drew from Lee’s Summit and Jack Wever from Kirkwood. Drew has the top entry in the 200 IM and the 100 breast. He only has .06 over the second seed in the IM, but at 56.86 for the breaststroke, his is the only time turned in this season below the 58 second mark. He was runner-up last year by .01 behind Oak Park’s Elliott Eisele-Miller at 56.88. Wever leads the 100 back at 50.85, which is the only entry time below 51 seconds.
Prelims begin at 3pm Friday at the St. Peters Rec-Plex. Swimming finals begin Saturday at 3pm. Be sure to check in at SwimSwam this weekend for coverage.
