LENEXA, Kan. – The McPherson/Smoky Valley Boys Swimming team finished their season Feb. 21-22 at the Shawnee Mission Aquatic Center in Lenexa at the 5-1A State Championships.
Cooper Bohme, Ethan Elder, Ben Bocox, and Beckett Schuckman represented McPherson and Gabe House represented Smoky Valley. The McPherson foursome qualified for the 200 Medley and 400 Freestyle relays and MHS’ Bohme qualified individually for the 200 and 500 Freestyle. Smoky Valley’s House qualified for the 100 Fly and 100 Backstroke individually.
The schools were two out of 44 schools competing in the 5-1A State Championships. Going to state with a limited number of participants, McPherson finished tied for 31st and Smoky Valley’s lone swimmer placed them tied for 33rd. Andover won their third title in a row ahead of Kapaun Mt. Carmel and Blue Valley Southwest. Three AVCTL programs finished in the top 10 with Winfield finishing 4th, Wichita Collegiate 5th, and Buhler in 8th.
The teams came in aiming high despite the low number of participants. “We were the definition of a ‘bubble’ team, with no swimmers seeded higher than 15th on the psych sheet,” head coach Matt Cotton said. “To progress, we were going to need a lot of good swims and a little luck.”
Luck was not on the team’s side in the preliminary round, but the good swims were. The 200 Medley relay team came in seeded 22nd of 24 teams, but they ended up swimming their best time of 1:52.49. However, they finished just half of a second behind Newton, who claimed the final spot for the final round Saturday.
Bohme, who is the team’s only freshman, followed up with a career-best mark of 2:00.53 in the 200 Freestyle, but it fell short of the consolation finals by just half of a second as well. He bounced back in the 500 Freestyle, qualifying for a spot in the B finals and 12th overall after swimming for a 5:26.16 mark.
House had his shot in the preliminary 100 Fly meet, finishing in a spot where he would have made the consolation finals. However, it was determined that he flinched while on the block, disqualifying him due to a false start. House bounced back in the preliminary for the 100 Backstroke, finishing with a 1:00.20 mark, breaking his own school record at Smoky Valley High School. The mark finished 11th overall putting him in the consolation finals.
The team got some much needed rest for Championship Saturday, not needing to participate until the 8th event of the day. Bohme broke Friday’s mark in the 500 Freestyle by seven seconds, finishing with a 5:19.25 time to finish 13th overall. House also broke his mark in the 100 Backstroke by 0.1 seconds to break his second record in as many days, finishing him in 12th place.
The 400 Freestyle Relay closed out the season for McPherson, shaving off some time off of their previous go with 3:41.50. However, McPherson was not the only team to improve on their times as they would finish 16th.
The end to the season, however, was a much needed improvement from last season. Cotton credited this team for fighting for points in the state championships, despite being an inexperienced group.
Below are the final thoughts of the 2024-25 season by head coach Matt Cotton:
While there is still a long way to climb, I think for a squad of our size and experience we managed to achieve something remarkable this year. If I would have told our returners last year that they’d be fighting for points at the state meet, I don’t know they would have believed me. We maximized every opportunity we had, and while there are still results, we would like to improve on, it’s been a wonderful ride this season to watch this team improve and grow meet after meet. I’m extremely proud of everything they’ve put in, and this marks an important step as the program looks to build back towards the heights we reached in 2020.One of the big changes to the program this year was welcoming back one of the members of that squad, Justus Hampton, as a new assistant coach. Justus knows the program inside and out, and knows the mindset it takes to be successful in the water. He brought some great workouts with him from his time swimming for Barton CC, and has been a great asset for the guys looking to get better. Hampton, himself a former 500 swimmer and the current MHS record holder in that event, has every confidence that in 3 years Bohme could have a real shot to claim that title. Records after all, he’d say, are meant to be broken! While House and Elder graduate this year, both off to college on athletic scholarships (Elder to John Brown University for Track/XC, House to Milliken University for Swim), we have a great basis for next year with some strong returners who will be looking to get back on the state stage and climb higher—next year we’ll be eyeing that podium.
