Chris Little went out in style.
After a 12th-place finish one year ago, the Hillcrest senior diver compiled 367.35 points to finish second among a field of 30 in the 1-meter diving competition at the Missouri Boys' Swimming and Diving Championships on Saturday at the Rec-Plex.
"It was great," Little said. "I messed up a couple dives, but I want to congratulate David (Knopke). He did really well. I could have done a lot better, but it was the best I could do."
Knopke, a Rockhurst freshman, won with 415.85 points to hold off a strong challenge from Little.
"I started off really strong, but the third dive wasn't so great," Little said. "Then, I got really good until the ninth. I didn't really bomb that dive, but it wasn't the greatest."
Glendale senior diver Carter Pfankuch also picked up a medal for finishing in the top eight, as he went from 29th last year to seventh this year with a total of 330.25 points.
"It was a lot of fun. I wouldn't have wanted it to end any other way," Pfankuch said. "I actually wasn't that confident going into it. I was hoping for maybe top 16."
The highest area team finish came from Glendale, which finished 13th with 64 points, although that was a far cry from last year's Falcons team that finished fifth and had three individual champions and a pair of top-three relay teams.
Even so, Glendale still got a solid day from junior Will Brand, who finished sixth in the 200-yard freestyle at 1:42.73 and then finished fourth in a school-record time of 51.74 in the 100-butterfly.
The 28-year-old record Brand broke belonged to Charlie Mace, who was in attendance Saturday because he is the father of Brand's friend and teammate, Wilson Mace.
"It means a lot," Brand said. "I wanted to be a little faster and break 51 (seconds), but I'm happy with it."
Among the other area teams, Kickapoo finished 22nd with 33 points, while Central (21 points) tied for 26th, Hillcrest (17) was 29th and Ozark (9) tied for 36th.
The other area swimmer to participate in the finals Saturday was Central sophomore Evan Petrich, who finished eighth in the 500 freestyle, with a time of 4:51.71, which was slower than his fifth-best prelim time of 4:45.47.
"It wasn't so much the place I got, it was the fact I added six seconds," Petrich said. "I was happy to be here today. It was fun and stuff. I'm just not too happy on my swim."
Little, though, came away extremely pleased by his final trip to the state meet.
"It was amazing," he said. "It's definitely something I'll remember for the rest of my life."
