SALINA —Great Bend swimmers Isaac Panzer and Cole Pierce placed first and both swimmers competed on the first-place 400 freestyle relay at the combined Salina Central/Salina South swimming meet Thursday. The meets were scored separately for Salina Central and Salina South.
Great Bend scored 537 points to outdistance Salina Central (360.5) for first place in the team scoring that excluded Salina South.
Panzer won the 100 freestyle (51.72) and Pierce captured the 500 freestyle (5;28.86). The Panthers’ relay quartet of Matthew Huslig, Pierce, Allen To and Panzer placed first (3:38.64).
Placing runner-up were Panzer, 50 freestyle (23.49); Huslig, 200 freestyle (2:01.46) and the 200 freestyle relay (1:41.39) of Huslig, Malachi Williams, Eli Hutchinson and Panzer.
Great Bend assistant coach Keith Moeder said Allen To showed vast improvement. Great Bend head coach Steve Beaumont missed the meet with an illness.
“Allen To had a breakthrough meet,” Moeder said. “He took two seconds off of his 400 free relay split, which helped us win the event by a large margin. He greatly improved in his 500 freestyle. To have such vast improvements in a sprint event and distance event in the same meet is rare.”
Another improving swimmer is Jesse DeLeon.
“Jesse DeLeon has improved tremendously his rookie year,” Moeder said. “His hard work at practice and continuous work to improve his technique resulted in great time improvements.”
The Panthers compete at Manhattan Saturday. The Western Athletic Conference meet is scheduled Feb. 8 at the Barton pool in Great Bend.
“The guys have been working hard in practice and it’s paying off,” Moeder said. “The success they have had at meets is motivating them to keep pushing themselves in order to prepare for the upcoming WAC meet and 5A state championships.
SALINA CENTRAL SCORES—1—Great Bend 451; 2—Salina Central 360.5; 3—Hutchinson 333; 4—Newton 328; 5—Hays High 204; 6—Rose Hill 164
SALINA SOUTH SCORES—1—Salina South 537; 2—Great Bend 360.5; 3—Newton 351; 4—Hutchinson 331.5; 5—Hays High 217; 6—Rose Hill 174
CENTRAL/SOUTH COMBINED RESULTS
50 freestyle—1—Williams, Hutchinson, 23.19; 2—Panzer, 23.49; 8—Hutchinson, 26.67; 10—Prado, 26.9; Flores, 28.38; Frizzell, 30.73; Jose Reyes, 31.31; Jacobo, 32.2; DeLeon, 36.73; Alan Reyes, 39.37
100 freestyle—1—Panzer, GB, 51.72; 3—Huslig, 54.68; 8—Abbott, 59.42; Popp, 1:04.2; Cervantes, 1:06.95; Valdovinos, 1:10.17; DeLeon, 1:22.86
100 butterfly—1—Burmaster, S Central, 57.41; 5—Kaiser, 1:08.58
100 backstroke—1—Torres, Newton, 1:00.22; 10—Valdovinos, 1:28.77; Jose Reyes, 1:34.91
100 breaststroke—1—Geddes, Hutchinson, 1:08.94; 5—Williams, 1:16.6; 9—Popp, 1:26.11; Kaiser, 1:26.26; Jacobo, 1:31.03
200 IM—1—Geddes, Hutchinson, 2:12.86; 3—Pierce, 2:19.85; 4—Allen To, 2:27.22; 8—Linenberger, 2:54.93
200 freestyle—1—Ambrust, S South, 2:00.82; 2—Huslig, 2:01.46; 7—Williams, 2:15.79; 9—Abbott, 2:23.63
500 freestyle—1—Pierce, 5:28.86; 3—Allen To, 6:05.43; 5—Linenberger, 6:50.6
200 free relay—1—Hutchinson, 1:35.54; 2—GB A, 1:41.39 (Huslig, Williams, Hutchinson, Panzer); 5—GB B, 1:49.64 (Abbott, Popp, Kaiser, Prado); 12—GB C, 2:19.06 (Jacobo, DeLeon, Alan Reyes, Linenberger)
200 medley relay—1—Hutchinson, 1:47.38; 4—GB A, 1:57.15 (Pierce, Williams, Allen To, Hutchinson); 8—GB B, 2:13.82 (Valdovinos, Cervantes, Kaiser, Popp); 10—GB C, 2:27.57 (Jose Reyes, Jacobo, Flores, Frizzell)
400 free relay—1—Great Bend A, 3:38.64 (Huslig, Pierce, Allen To, Panzer); 5—GB B, 4;23.9 (Prado, Valdovinos, Cervantes, Abbott; 6—GB C, 4:53.92 (Flores, Linenberger, Jose Reyes, Frizzell)