Under Blue Valley North head coach Rob Cole, the Mustangs’ swim teams end every practice with a series of 100-yard freestyle sprints.

“We always believe in finishing our practices strong, finishing our meets strong, finishing our year strong,” Cole said. “We always have that vision on how we do it.”

For each of the last three seasons, Cole’s squad has turned that vision into a reality at the state championship meet.

Blue Valley North closed out the 6A boys swimming and diving state championship meet on Feb. 22 at Shawnee Mission School District Aquatic Center in Lenexa with a victory in the 400-yard freestyle relay, which capped off the team’s third straight state title.

The Mustangs finished with 302 points, ahead of state runner-up Shawnee Mission East at 263. Blue Valley West took third with 238 points.

Except for a gold in the last year’s 200 medley relay, the Mustangs only have first-place finishes in their 400 free relay races throughout their three-peat.

Senior Wilson Riekhof has been a part of each of those three first-place finishes in the 400 free. This year Riekhof was joined by sophomore Noah Pratt and fellow seniors Henry Parisi and Connor Golding.

“Every year it just feels a lot better to have that be the race to win it all,” Riekfhof said. “When it was that close of a meet compared to last year, winning that relay just really tops it all off.”

Although Blue Valley North finished with a sizable margin over the Lancers, the Mustangs were only ahead by two points with three events to go following Shawnee Mission East’s victory in the 200 free relay.

The Lancers finished that race with a time of 1:26.10, followed by Shawnee Mission Northwest at 1:26.51. Parisi, junior Jack Munro, Golding, Riekhof took third for the Mustangs, posting a time of 1:26.84.

“Hats off to Shawnee Mission East and what they did in the 200 free relay,” Cole said. “It was just wonderful. But we had our season-best time (in the 200 free relay). We had nothing to be discouraged about.”
 

The Mustangs also knew that they had five swimmers left to the Lancers’ two in the final two individual events. In addition to the numbers advantage, Blue Valley North had the higher placing swimmer in both of those events.

While Blue Valley North’s 400 free relay team put the finishing touches on the state meet once again, all four of the team’s swimmers from that relay also got the team off to a strong start with their performances in the 200-yard freestyle.

Golding took third in the 200 free, which would ultimately be the Mustangs’ best individual finish at state. After he touched the wall at 1:43.62, Parisi would join him at 1:45.42 to take fifth before Riekhof would finish at 1:46.69 to take seventh.

Despite only competing in the 200 free once to qualify for state, Golding positioned himself well as the third-ranked seed time behind only Maize’s Zach Rife and Blue Valley Northwest’s John Christianson. Golding’s 1:43.04 in prelims moved him past Christianson, but still two seconds back of Rife.

Golding admits that his desire to chase down his chance at an individual gold medal might have caused him to lose the team a point.

“I tried to take it out with Rife, maybe went out a little too quick on that,” Golding said.

Luckily, the Mustangs still had quite a few points coming in that race.

Riekhof had entered state with 10th-ranked seed time for that event, but shaved more than five seconds off in the prelims to make it into the finals. His performance ended up pushing Pratt out of the top eight. Pratt improved his 200 free time with each state race, ultimately posting a 1:47.39 when he won the B-final.

Golding would take fourth in his other individual event as he posted a 1:00.66 in the 100 breaststroke. Freshman Jan Beltran posted a 1:03.06 to take 12th in the B-final of that event.

Parisi and juniors Khasar Chinbat and Jack Munro would match Golding’s fourth-place finish with each’s top individual finishes.
 

Parisi saw his seed time slip in the 100 free, moving him from a fifth-ranked time to a seventh-ranked one heading into the finals. But he corrected that and ultimately dropped 0.12 seconds off his best time on the season with a 47.82.

Parisi said it felt amazing to contribute to his team, both in the relays and with his individual performances.

“The last two years I swam at state and I got a few points here and there, but this year I think I really shined and got a lot of points for our team,” Parisi said. “It feels great to be a part of the victory.”

Riekhof, who entered state as the ninth-ranked swimmer for the 100 free, cut 0.91 seconds from his seed time to advance to the finals with the fourth-best mark. Riekhof would trim his time down by another 0.16 seconds, but his 47.88 still landed him down to spots into sixth.

Chinbat saw his seed time slip a little in the prelims for 500 free, but he maintained his fifth-ranked spot. He would drop 6.29 seconds off his best time of the year with his 4:50.60 in the finals. Senior Jack Ramsey shaved 4.52 seconds off his seed time with his 5:07.96 mark in the B-finals, earning him 15th place in that event.

Chinbat also took seventh in the 200 individual medley, posting a time of 2:00.33.

Cole pointed to Chinbat as a swimmer who stepped up with his state performance.

“He’s had a rough season and he just really shined,” Cole said.

Munro earned one of two fourth-place finishes in the 100 backstroke, which would the event earning the Mustangs’ their second best haul in an individual event after the 100 free.

Munro moved back a spot in sixth heading into the finals for 100 back after his seed time dropped by 0.37 seconds. He recovered by posting a 54.21 to drop 0.39 seconds of his previous best time this season. 

Munro also took fourth in the 100 butterfly, where he dropped 0.29 seconds and posted a 52.68 to move up from his seventh-ranked seed time. Pratt dropped 0.81 seconds off his seed time when he finished sixth in the finals with a 53.35.
 

Senior Caleb Twyman shaved 1.12 seconds off his seed time to move up three spots and into the A-finals of the 100 back alongside Munro. Twyman kept pushing his time down by another 0.80 seconds to take seventh with a 54.93. Junior Harris Stevens was not able to improve upon his best time in the 100 back with his two races at state, but his 57.00 in the B-finals earned him 13th.

Those three swimmers combined to earn 30 points in the 100 back, giving the Mustangs breathing room even with the Lancers’ duo of Zane Laing and Cole Person putting up 14 points. Once Golding and Beltran pushed their lead on the team scoreboard to 27 points over Shawnee Mission East, the Mustangs had the state race all but wrapped up heading into the 400 free.

Still, the swimmers on that relay wanted nothing more than to close out this state meet, the three-peat and their own high school career with a gold-medal performance.

“We were all telling ourselves that this is our last race of high school and just to give it our all,  sprint our hearts out,” Parisi said.

Parisi gave the team a sizable lead as the leadoff, with Pratt adding to it over his stint in the pool. Blue Valley Northwest made a late push and caught Blue Valley West to take second, but Golding and Parisi delivered 47.22 and 47.18 times respectively to finish the race with a full-second advantage over the Huskies.

“We barely won in the 4x100,” Parisi said. “We never would've gotten to that place without Rob (Cole) and he's just a great coach and he knows how to win the state championship.”

But Cole quickly deflected credit back to his swimmers. He noted that his team’s “internal support” provides the foundation for the program’s success and its three straight state titles. He pointed to how the upperclassmen help teach the younger swimmers what to expect at competitions and what the team expects from them.

He also pointed to the performances of those three seniors on the 400 free relay as strong examples of the team’s commitment to steady progress throughout a four-year journey for their high school swimmers.

“They didn’t even make state their freshman year and look at what they did their senior year,” Cole said.

Additionally, none of those three swimmers had previously swam year-round on club teams prior to joining the Mustangs’ squad as freshmen.

“Starting out, we were all small, little freshmen,” Golding said. “Throughout the years, Rob really developed us. He can tell you pretty much what time you're going to get from the start of the season and it’s crazy.”
 

Cole said it was exciting to see this group of seniors help lead their team to another state championship and clinch the three-peat, which puts them into an elite company. 

“We’ve been very privileged to have great talents on the team,” Cole said.

Since 1972, only five programs have won three straight titles. Blue Valley earned the first of three straight state titles with their victory in 1986, which also happens to be the year that Blue Valley North first opened. 

The opening of Blue Valley Northwest in 1993 spread the swim talent a little thinner, but the Huskies would win a couple titles before Blue Valley North rolled to four straight state titles from 1998-2002. 

Shawnee Mission East would four-peat twice with championship runs from 2005-08 and 2015-18. Blue Valley West would end that second stretch for the Lancers as the Jaguars had their own three-peat from 2019-21.

Shortly after Blue Valley North earned its second three-peat with this year’s victory, Andover became the first school to clinch a three-peat in 5-1A since a second classification was added in 2010.

While the program’s three-year run puts them among a special group, one of the swimmers on this year’s team wanted to know if Cole thought this was the best team he’s ever coached. When posed the question, Cole hesitated but also never said no.

“Probably the most well-rounded team I’ve ever had,” Cole said. 

To round out the performances, senior Trey Wichman delivered a seventh-place finish in the 1-meter diving event with his score of 386.50. Senior Christian Eide finished the event with a 325.20 to take 14th.

Senior Johnny McMonagle rounded out the team’s individual performances in the finals. McMonagle finished 13th in the 50 free with a time of 22.49.

McMonagle also anchored the team’s 200 medley relay alongside Munro, Beltran and Ramsey. The Mustangs tied for sixth in that relay, posting the same 1:40.82 time as Olathe Northwest.

CLASS 6A STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS
 
TEAM SCORES

Blue Valley North 302, Shawnee Mission East 263, Blue Valley West 238, Blue Valley Northwest 196, Olathe East 190, Shawnee Mission Northwest 131, Maize 128, Manhattan 112, Olathe Northwest 107, Blue Valley 84, Shawnee Mission North 79, Shawnee Mission West 71, Free State 65, Olathe West 53, Shawnee Mission South 51, Campus 50, Lawrence 47, Derby 39, Wichita Heights 34, Wichita East 22, Wichita Northwest 20, Mill Valley 19, Washburn Rural 9, Wichita Southeast 7, Topeka High 6.