MANHATTAN — After nearly a month out of the water, the Great Bend High School boys’ swim team finished third at a Manhattan meet on Wednesday night.
The Panthers finished with 120 points, trailing first-place Manhattan (247) and second-place Olathe South (145).
“It was their first time in the water in about a month, so I thought we did pretty well,” GBHS head coach Steve Beaumont said. “Our times were good coming off the Christmas break. We had a lot of season-best times.”
Among those season-best times was Justin Kuhlman’s first-place performance in the 200-meter freestyle. He finished with a time of 1:56.72 as the only first-place finisher for Great Bend.
Kuhlman also claimed the Panthers’ only second-place finish, turning in a time of 52.97 in the 100 freestyle.
Nick Moyers, Cory Merten, Josh Schridde and Christian Yount combined for a third-place finish in the 200 medley relay (2:04.07).
Schridde and Merten joined Kuhlman and Nathan Brungardt for third place in the 200 freestyle relay (4:02.63).
Merten turned in a season-best time (6:13.65) in the 500 freestyle for third place.
“We didn’t bring the full team,” Beaumont said. “We had maybe 17 swimmers. We left nine at home. Several kids missed some practice during the break, and others have been out of the water due to illness.
“Those that swam today looked to be right on track as far as conditioning is concerned, which is great to see.”
Great Bend travels to Hays on Monday. The meet starts at 4 p.m.

                                             — Kevin Price