SALINA — The Great Bend High School boys’ swim team started its season on Thursday at the Salina swim meet.
Kade Cook came away the big winner with state-qualifying times in three events, including the 100-yard backstroke, the 100 butterfly and the 400 freestyle relay.
The swim meet was split into two competitions, one against Salina Central and the other against Salina South.
“The head coach for Salina actually coaches both teams,” GBHS head coach Steve Beaumont said. “He’s been doing it for awhile now. He said that when the two teams would compete against each other, there is just too much rivalry. They share locker rooms and there was just too much competition between the two, so when they have a home meet, they split the scoring into two categories.”
Great Bend finished in second place in both categories, finishing six points behind Salina Central and 61 points behind Salina South.
Cook finished with a time of 59.99 seconds in the fly and 1:02.29 in the backstroke to capture second place in both events.
“His times were awfully good for the first meet of the season,” Beaumont said. “For the amount of time we’ve been in the water, he is really swimming well. Hopefully we can keep shaving time off in his events.”
Cook joined Nick Moyers, Dylan Dreiling and Justin Kuhlman in the 400 freestyle relay to finish in second place with a time of 3:44.88.
Michael Haines was the only Great Bend swimmer to take first place, winning the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:11.07.
“Overall, I was very pleased with how we did,” Beaumont said. “I think this is one of our best first meets in several years. Our starts looked really good. We swam well. We had a lot of time improvements.
“We obviously have a long ways to go, but I think we’ve done well so far.”
The Panthers host the Great Bend Invitational on Tuesday starting at 4 p.m.

HIGH SCHOOL SWIMMING

At Salina South
Thursday

BOYS

Team standings
(vs. Salina Central)
1. Salina Central, 340; 2. Great Bend, 334; 3. Hays, 310; 4. Campus, 277.

Team Standings
(vs. Salina South)
1. Salina South, 371; 2. Great Bend, 310; 3. Hays, 306; 4. Campus, 263.

GBHS results
200 medley relay
2. GBHS “A” relay (Nick Moyers, Michael Haines, Kade Cook, Nick Elliott), 1:57.25; 4. GBHS “B” relay (Tristan Yount, Kyle Bussen, Jake Kohman, Jeremy McFann), 2:14.09.
200 freestyle
2. Justin Kuhlman, 2:04.30; 7. Cory Merten, 2:28.32; 10. Jake Kohman, 2:52.20.
200 individual medley
2. Michael Haines, 2:20.07; 6. Nick Moyers, 2:42.70; Kyle Bussen, 2:49.38.
50 freestyle
5. Dylan Dreiling, 25.64; 10. Nick Elliott, 28.03; 11. Tristan Yount, 28.06; Jeremy McFann, 29.14; Austin Levingston, 30.03; Nick Porter, 32.11; David Webster, 34.13; Edgar Mata, 36.53; Alex Freund, 40.98; JB Slater, 47.63, Chris Falck, 55.76.
100 Butterfly
2. Kade Cook, 59.99.
100 freestyle
2. Justin Kuhlman, 55.98; 3. Dylan Dreiling, 57.00; 8. Cory Merten, 1:03.56.
500 freestyle
2. Nick Moyers, 6:34.00; 7. Jake Kohman, 7:39.76.
200 freestyle relay
4. GBHS “A” relay (Michael Haines, Nick Elliott, Kyle Bussen, Dylan Dreiling), 1:46.30; 5. GBHS “B” relay (Jeremy McFann, Jake Kohman, Austin Levingston, Cory Merten), 1:58.40; 9. GBHS “C” relay (David Webster, Nick Porter, JB Slater, Alex Freund), 2:41.36.
100 backstroke
2. Kade Cook, 1:02.29; 6. Tristan Yount, 1:19.24.
100 breaststroke
1. Michael Haines, 1:11.07; 4. Nick Elliott, 1:23.74; 11. Austin Levingston, 1:46.43.
400 freestyle relay
2. GBHS “A” relay (Nick Moyers, Dylan Dreiling, Justin Kuhlman, Kade Cook), 3:44.88; 5. GBHS “B” relay (Kyle Bussen, Tristan Yount, Cory Merten, Austin Levingston), 4:31.47.