The Great Bend High School girls’ swim team finished in fifth place at the Great Bend High School Invitational on Friday night.
The Lady Panthers finished with 217 points. Manhattan High took the top prize with 405.5. Salina South, Andover and Newton rounded out the top five.
“For us, it was a pretty average meet,” GBHS head coach Stephanie Maier said. “We kept some steady times. A few people, Hannah Hildebrand, increased their times a little bit. But I think they swam well.”
Great Bend’s top finish was achieved by Hannah Hildebrand, who took third place in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of one minute, 8.08 seconds.
“Hannah has worked hard all season long on that backstroke,” Maier said. “Her goal is to make the state qualifying time. She’s .06 off in tonight’s time, so she’s very close. She’ll still make it in consideration times but she wants to actually have qualified.”
Hildebrand also took fifth place in the 100 butterfly, touching in at 1:09.28. She was also part of the top-finishing relay team in the 200 freestyle relay with Taycee Bunn, Erin Sullivan and Kylee Spray.
The relay team combined for a time of 1:59.96 to take eighth place.
Maier said that she is seeing some conflicting times when comparing relay splits and individual times.
“A lot of them are (peeking at the right time),” Maier said. “There seems to be a lot of discrepancy in their times. Like they’ll swim in a relay and get a really good time and then they will swim their open (freestyle) and then not do so well. We need to get some consistency and figure out where we are getting our times out there.”
Even with the discrepancies, Maier said that she is seeing some good improvements from several girls.
“Erin Sullivan has been making some great improvements in her times and has been doing great the last few meets,” Maier said. “I definitely noticed her out there. Of course, Hannah Hildebrand is still placing in the top six people in these big meets. Brianna Schartz, her breaststroke time is really getting up there, and she’s coming along. She continues to take time off.”
Sullivan took 10th place in the 200 freestyle with 2:30.34 and 18th in the 50 freestyle, finishing with a time of 30.25.
Schartz turned in a time of 1:27.42 in the 100 breaststroke to take eighth place and miss seventh-place finisher and teammate Brenna Haines, who finished at 1:27.35.
Senior Jessica Kuhlman took sixth place in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:26.76.
The Lady Panthers travel to Newton on Thursday.

HIGH SCHOOL SWIMMING
Great Bend Invitational
Friday
Team standings
1. Manhattan High, 405.5; 2. Salina South, 398; 3. Andover, 339; 4. Newton, 302.5; 5. Great Bend, 217.5; 6. Dodge City, 179; 7. McPherson, 132; 8. Salina Central, 91; 9. TMP-Marian, 51; 10. Hays, 48.5; 11. Junction City, 6.

Great Bend results
200-yard Medley relay
9. GBHS “A” relay (Katie Heeke, Jessica Kuhlman, Hannah Hildebrand, Allison Damm), 2:12.36; 14. GBHS “B” relay (Katlin Fuel, Brianna Schartz, Kylee Spray, Brenna Haines), 2:23.70; 18. GBHS “C” relay (Sylvia Ofoma, Jessica Freund, Tasha Davis, Estella Schumacher), 2:36.70.
200 Freestyle
5. Allison Damm, 2:15.70; 10. Erin Sullivan, 2:30.34; 18. MaKenzie Sauder, 2:41.42.
200 I.M.
6. Jessica Kuhlman, 2:41.97; 17. Kaitlin Fuel, 2:58.92; 20. Malia Disque, 3:20.47.

50 Freestyle
12. Taycee Bunn, 29.22; 15. Sylvia Ofoma, 30.04; 18. Erin Sullivan, 30.25.
100 Butterfly
5. Hannah Hildebrand, 1:09.28; 14. Malia Disque, 1:24.74; 15. Kylee Spray, 1:28.54.
100 Freestyle
12. Taycee Bunn, 1:05.05; 17. Katie Heeke, 1:07; 11; 26. MaKenzie Sauder, 1:14.60.
500 Freestyle
5. Allison Damm, 6:16.44; 12. Brenna Haines, 6:50.48; 18. Tasha Davis, 7:44.06.
200 Freestyle relay
8. GBHS “A” relay (Taycee Bunn, Erin Sullivan, Kylee Spray, Hannah Hildebrand), 1:59.96, 14. GBHS “B” relay (Katlin Fuel, Malia Disque, MaKenzie Sauder, Sylvia Ofoma), 2:09.49; 21. GBHS “C” relay (Jessica Freund, Brianna Schartz, Darby Johnson, Estella Schumacher), 2:21.03.
100 Backstroke
3. Hannah Hildebrand, 1:08.08; 12. Katie Heeke, 1:18.60; 16. Katlin Fuel, 1:20.60.
100 Breaststroke
6. Jessica Kuhlman, 1:26.76; 7. Brenna Haines, 1:27.35; 8. Brianna Schartz, 1:27.42.
400 Freestyle relay
10. GBHS “A” relay (Allison Damm, Jessica Kuhlman, Brenna Haines, Taycee Bunn), 4:23.81; 15. GBHS “B” relay (Katie Heeke, Kylee Spray, MaKenzie Sauder, Erin Sullivan), 4:40.46; 22. GBHS “C” relay (Estella Schumacher, Darby Johnson, Jessica Freund, Tasha Davis), 5:28.66.