BY JIM MISUNAS

jmisunas@gbtribune.com

Great Bend Panther junior Ellis Long broke a school record Saturday, and rallied with a first-place 200-yard freestyle finish with a season-best time (2:07.11) Monday at the Barton Community College pool. Long also competed on a first-place 200-medley relay that recorded a season-best time (1:45.9) along with Tyler Stein, Kasey Kennedy and Brody Feist.

Long broke the Panther school record with a fifth-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:03.05) at Saturday's Wichita Heights Swimming Invitational. 

"It's a nice feeling. I wanted to break the record this season and push it as far as I can," Long said. "It was a fast pool and fast competition at Wichita. I finished fifth and set the record. You get a mental push that's a lot stronger when you see someone coming up on you." 

Tyler Stein won the 100 freestyle (54.3) and 100 backstroke (1:00.3) to earn three first finishes. Brody Feist won the 500 freestyle with a season-best time (5:45.13).

The Panthers are scheduled to compete at Hutchinson Tuesday, providing four meets in eight days, a grueling stretch.

"I'm glad we saw great competition at Wichita Heights and our home meet, but our guys are tired," said Great Bend coach Kari Carper. "They're tired, but training hard. The fact they're close to their best times is a great sign. I realize they're not getting personal bests every time out. They went out and competed in events they're not used to swimming. They find new events they're good at. We had no idea Beau Burkhart was a good breaststroker." 

GREAT BEND INVITATIONAL

TEAM SCORES—1—Manhattan 397; 2—Great Bend 296; 3—Garden City 244; 4—Hays High 193

GREAT BEND RESULTS *season-best

200 freestyle relay—1—Manhattan 1:40.93; 3—Great Bend, 1:48.7 (Kasey Kennedy, Kaid Wagner, Beau Burkhart, Ellis Long); 6—GB B, 2:12.0 (Joshua Sharpe, Trinten Medlock, Andrew McQuade, Colton Cross

200 medley relay—1—Great Bend, *1:45.9 (Tyler Stein, Ellis Long, Kasey Kennedy, Brody Feist); 5—GB B, 2:35.4 (Trinten Medlock, Ty Boone, Colton Cross, Joshua Sharpe)

400 freestyle relay—1—Manhattan, 3:44.25; 3—Great Bend, 4:10.82 (Brody Feist, Kaid Wagner, Beau Burkhart, Tyler Stein)

50 freestyle—1—Ruzicka, GC, 23.41; 2—Feist, 23.78; 9—Wagner, 30.46; 10—Sharpe, 33.11

100 backstroke—1—Stein, GB, 1:00.3; 7—Sharpe, 1:29.45

100 breaststroke—1—Graves, Manhattan, 1:07.56; 4—Burkhart, 1:31.03

100 butterfly—1—Ruzicka, GC, 58.75; 4—Long, 1:05.11; 5—Kennedy, 1:05.58; 6—Burkhart, 1:21.42

100 freestyle—1—Stein, GB, 54.3; 9—Cross, *1:14.49

200 freestyle—1—Long, GB, *2:07.11; 8—McQuade, 3:00.92; 10—Medlock, 3:43.33

200 IM—1—Bunger, Manhattan, 2:17.13; 4—Kennedy, 2:28.91; 7—Boone, *3:01.35

500 freestyle—1—Feist, GB, *5:45.13; 7—Wagner, 7:21.6; 8—Boone, 7:44.02