MANHATTAN — It was the first swim meet back after the Christmas break for the Great Bend High School Panthers.
The boys took third place with a score of 277. Olathe South finished in first place with 388.
“I think in terms of performance, it was our greatest meet of the year,” GBHS head coach Steve Beaumont said. “We had some really good times coming off of Christmas break. As a coach, you’re never quite sure if you can come back from Christmas break and swim well, but we really did swim well. We had a lot of season-best times and personal-best times.”
Great Bend was missing three swimmers — Nick Elliott, Tristan Yount and Michael Haines — due to either illness or injury.
“I think we had three swimmers that didn’t compete,” Beaumont said. “They are three experienced swimmers, and that definitely affected our score. Those are three schools that are very good programs, too. We didn’t have our full allotment of swimmers, I guess. Overall, I was pleased with the kids that did go and swim.”
The only first-place finish for Great Bend was the 200-yard freestyle relay team comprised of Kade Cook, Kyle Bussen, Nick Moyers and Dylan Dreiling.
The relay team touched in at one minute, 42.69.
Justin Kuhlman had a pair of second-place finishes. Kuhlman, who is returning from a shoulder injury, finished with a time of 54.87 in the 100 freestyle and 59.98 in the 100 backstroke.
“He had his best meet of the season by far,” Beaumont said of Kuhlman. “I think it has just taken him some time to get some strength back in his shoulder and a lot of it is just a confidence thing for him. I really think he had a breakthrough meet and made a state-qualifying time in his 100 backstroke. He finished second on the 100 free with a season-best time as well.
“It was encouraging to see him getting close to back to where he was last season.”
Ky Heeke took second play in the 200 freestyle with a time of 2:04.92.
Heeke, Kuhlman, Moyers and Cook combined to take second place in the 400 freestyle relay, touching in at 3:49.74.
Great Bend is back in action on Monday when it travels to Hays. The meet begins at 4 p.m.
The Kansas High School Activities Association puts a limit to how many meets a swimmer can compete in during a season, so the Panthers will only be bringing swimmers that have already missed a meet due to illness or injury.
“Right now, we’re only going to have about half of our squad,” Beaumont said. “We’ll have about nine or 10 kids that will be going.”

                                                                                    — Kevin Price

HIGH SCHOOL SWIMMING
At Manhattan
BOYS
Wednesday
Team standings
1. Olathe South, 388; 2. Manhattan, 334; 3. Great Bend, 277; 4. Olathe North, 194.
Great Bend results
200-yard medley relay
3. GBHS ‘A’ relay (Justin Kuhlman, Kyle Bussen, Ky Heeke, Dylan Dreiling), 1:57.95; 9. GBHS ‘B’ relay (Alex Bratic, David Webster, Jake Kohman, Cory Merten), 2:26.23.
200 freestyle
2. Ky Heeke, 2:04.92; 6. Cory Merten, 2:20.13.
200 individual medley
7. Kyle Bussen, 2:44.34; 8. Nathan Brungardt, 2:49.37.
50 freestyle
7. Dylan Dreiling, 25.95; 11. Austin Levingston, 27.84; 27. Jake Kohman, 30.53; Nick Porter, 31.89; David Webster, 32.23; Alex Bratic, 33.80; Alex Freund, 34.08; JB Slater, 39.64; Chris Falck, 40.07.
100 butterfly
3. Kade Cook, 1:03.81; 5. Nathan Brungardt, 1:20.97.
100 freestyle
2. Justin Kuhlman, 54.87; 7. Dylan Dreiling, 57.93; 18. Austin Levingston, 1:08.61; Nick Porter, 1:14.10; Alex Freund, 1:17.93; Alex Bratic, 1:20.65.
500 freestyle
4. Ky Heeke, 5:56.63; 6. Nick Moyers, 6:13.71; 7. Jake Kohman, 7:23.03.
200 freestyle relay
1. GBHS  ‘A’ relay (Kade Cook, Kyle Bussen, Nick Moyers, Dylan Dreiling), 1:42.69; 10. GBHS ‘B’ relay (Jake Kohman, Austin Levingston, Nick Porter, Nathan Brungardt), 2:10.53; 13. GBHS ‘C’ relay (Alex Bratic, JB Slater, Chris Falck, Alex Freund), 2:27.01.
100 backstroke
2. Justin Kuhlman, 59.98; 3. Kade Cook, 1:05.15.
100 breaststroke
6. Kyle Bussen, 1:24.76; 14. Cory Merten, 1:28.69; 18. David Webster, 1:38.89.
400 freestyle relay
2. GBHS ‘A’ relay (Ky Heeke, Justin Kuhlman, Nick Moyers, Kade Cook), 3:49.74; 8. GBHS ‘B’ relay (Nathan Brungardt, Austin Levingston, Nick Porters, Cory Merten), 4:42.17.