Jackson's Troxel gains all-state honor at Missouri Swimming and Diving Championships

ST. PETERS, Mo. -- Jackson senior Kristian Troxel closed out a decorated high school swimming career Saturday with a sixth-place finish in the 500 freestyle at the Missouri Swimming and Diving Championships.

Troxel earned his third career all-state finish with a time of 4 minutes, 48.50 seconds in the event. He came into the meet with a 14th-seeded time of 4:55.74, but entered the final seeded seventh after lowering his time to 4:47.06 in Friday's preliminaries.

"He was pretty pleased with the way he finished his final swim today for Jackson High School," Jackson coach Carol Baugh said.

Troxel aslo finished ninth in the 200 IM, timing 1:58.56 in Saturday's consolation event.

"He dropped over three seconds off his seed time," Baugh said.

Jackson failed to qualify for the 200 medley relay final, but swam faster than its seed time with a 1:44.98, which placed the squad 25th.

Austin Hobbs (5:08.20, 36th) did not make it out of Friday's 500 freestyle preliminaries, while Joey Janisse (56.06, 20th) did not advance in the 100 backstroke.

Troxel was all-state in the 200 IM and 500 freestyle last year.

"He was conference MVP the last couple of years," Baugh said. "He's had a lot of achievements. We're very proud of him."

Notre Dame senior Dustin Parsons failed to make the finals in the 100 butterfly. His consolation time of 53.90 seconds was good for 13th place. Parsons' 1:50.33 (30th) didn't qualify for the 200 freestyle finals, nor did teammate Jackson Voss' 1:51.19 (40th). Voss was 32nd in Friday's 500 freestyle preliminaries in 5:00.62. Junior Zach Smith was 37th in 55.98 seconds in Friday's 100 butterfly preliminaries. The school's 400 freestyle relay team placed 31st Friday in 3:28.98.

Senior Ramsey Scott of Central was 30th in Friday's 100 freestyle preliminaries in 50.32 seconds. Central's 200 freestyle relay placed 27th in 1:33.65 in Friday's preliminaries, while Notre Dame was 33rd in 1:33.67.

Jackson finished 25th overall with 22 team points. Notre Dame tied for 41st with 4.