The Great Bend High School girls’ swimming team won its second straight home swim meet on Monday when it hosted Dodge City, Liberal, Hutchinson and Thomas More Prep-Marian at the Barton Community College pool.
The Lady Panthers scored 385 points to put them ahead of second-place Dodge City, which scored 272.
“It was a good meet for us,” GBHS head coach Stephanie Maier said, “and it was nice to see that against Hutchinson, which is a larger school and sometimes we don’t do as well against them. So we swam very well against Hutchinson. Dodge City is in the (Western Athletic Conference). It was nice to see how we swam against them.”
Maier said that her team had to adjust to the level of competition at this meet compared to its first meet.
“You know, they swam well,” Maier said. “We saw some of the competition with Dodge City and Hutchinson, even some of the Liberal girls came out and swam hard against us. So I think it was maybe a little surprising to them based on what they saw in their first meet and then coming in and seeing some stronger competition.”
Great Bend’s main competition on Monday was Dodge City, which snagged five first-place finishes compared to the Lady Panthers’ four.
“It’s just kind of back and forth,” Maier said. “Dodge City has a fast swimmer in Zhu Zhu Lundin Daniels. They’re fast in the fly and freestyle. They have some fast sprinters, but we were good in the 200(-yard) I.M., the distance events. We always do good in the 500 and the back. Those three events really helped us. We did lose two relays, which are more points so that hurt us.
“But we came out and won that 400 (relay) at the end, which was a nice finish.”
In spite of their WAC competitors, GBHS was able to get several big performances from its young swimmers to make up the point differences.
“We’re doing really good,” Maier said. “We’re still seeing some time improvements from our new swimmers. There are a lot of little things we can do with our line ups and what we need to do for the WAC. We have a long way to go to get some drops, and Dodge City, Liberal, Garden City are all going to have time to see the same drops in time this season.
“We’ll just keep going and see how we compete throughout the year.”
Sophomore Allison Damm put up a strong performance in the 500 freestyle, taking first place with a time of six minutes, 19.92 seconds.
Jessica Kuhlman claimed first place in the 200 individual medley, touching in at 2:42.12, and Hannah Hildebrand finished with the time of 1:09.40 to take first place in the 100 backstroke.
“Allison Damm had her fastest 500 and she got a nice finish on that,” Maier said. “Hannah Hildebrand took off more time on her backstroke and got first place in that. Our I.M., Jessica Kuhlman took first place in that I.M. So all of those first-place finishes really helped the team out.”
Freshmen Brianna Schartz and Kylee Spray both had good days for the Lady Panthers.
“Brianna Schartz, she did excellent in her breaststroke today,” Maier said. “Kylee Spray swam in the 100 fly, which is always difficult. So they were all just improving and it is fun to watch.”
Great Bend goes to the Wichita Northwest swim meet on Saturday at 8 a.m.

HIGH SCHOOL SWIMMING
At Barton Community College pool
GIRLS
Team results
1. Great Bend, 385; 2. Dodge City, 272; 3. Liberal, 223; 4. Hutchinson, 221; TMP-Marian, 137.
Great Bend results
200-yard Medley relay
2. GBHS “A” relay (Hannah Hildebrand, Jessica Kuhlman, Allison Damm, Taycee Bunn), 2:12.38; 5. GBHS “B” relay (Katie Heeke, Brenna Haines, Malia Disque, Erin Sullivan), 2:26.52; 8. GBHS “C” relay (Estella Schumacher, Brianna Schartz, Tasha Davis, Jessica Freund), 2:42.24.
200 Freestyle
3. Brenna Haines, 2:29.29; 5. Erin Sullivan, 2:38.77; 11. Malia Disque, 3:09.53.
200 I.M.
1. Jessica Kuhlman, 2:42.12; 2. Allison Damm, 2:43.15; 6. Katlin Fuel, 3:04.90.
50 Freestyle
3. Taycee Bunn, 29.23; 10. Kylee Spray, 32.16; 11. MaKenzie Sauder, 32.25; Jessica Freund, 36.02; Sydney Perez, 36.22; Darby Johnson, 36.83; Brianna Schartz, 38.42; Estella Schumacher, 38.49.
100 Butterfly
2. Hannah Hildebrand, 1:10.65; 4. Kylie Spray, 1:27.61; 5. Malia Disque, 1:28.17.
100 Freestyle
3. Taycee Bunn, 1:06.21; 5. Katie Heeke, 1:07.90; 9. Sylvia Ofoma, 1:12.89; Tasha Davis, 1:17.66; Sydney Perez, 1:27.08; Estella Schumacher, 1:28.01; Darby Johnson, 1:28.11.
500 Freestyle
1. Allison Damm, 6:19.92; 3. Jessica Kuhlman, 6:45.11; 6. Erin Sullivan, 7:12.19.
200 Freestyle relay
3. GBHS “A” relay (Brenna Haines, Kylee Spray, MaKenzie Sauder, Taycee Bunn), 2:03.46; 6. GBHS “B” relay (Katlin Fuel, Tasha Davis, Malia Disque, Sylvia Ofoma), 2:10.89; 10. GBHS “C” relay (Estella Schumacher, Darby Johnson, Sydney Perez, Brianna Schartz), 2:29.25.
100 Backstroke
1. Hannah Hildebrand, 1:09.40; 3. Katie Heeke, 1:18.64; 6. Katlin Fuel, 1:22.91; Tasha Davis, 1:28.96; Sylvia Ofoma, 1:37.65.
100 Breaststroke
3. Brenna Haines, 1:28.00; 4. Brianna Schartz, 1:30.19; 6. MaKenzie, Sauder, 1:32.67; Jessica Freund, 1:43.45.
400 Freestyle relay
1. GBHS “A” relay (Allison Damm, Jessica Kuhlman, Katie Heeke, Hannah Hildebrand), 4:26.64; 5. GBHS “B” relay (Erin Sullivan, MaKenzie Sauder, Kylee Spray, Katlin Fuel), 4:50.42; GBHS “C” relay (Sylvia Ofoma, Jessica Freund, Darby Johnson, Sydney Perez), 5:54.26.