By the end of the first event people were on their feet cheering for the close called race in the Capitol Federal Natatorium. Already the meet was off to a good start for the Manhattan High Swim team when their Medley relay team took second over all.   

The league meet was full of surprises leaving the coaches proud.

“I was really happy with it, lots of best times and lots of state cuts as well that we were close to getting and finally made that leap,” head coach Alex Brown said.

The MHS swim and dive team took third overall losing only to Washburn (second place) and Seaman (first place).

“We have always known that Washburn and Seaman was our big competition,” senior captain Parker Holborn said.“It has been like that ever since I’ve been to league, which is the last four years.”

The team rose up to the challenge and had many people medal and qualify for state. The 200 free relay team coming in first with still many more accomplishments to follow.  

“We had some amazing time drops so even though we got third I’m very proud of my team,” Holborn said.

“We had several people out and we outscored well above where we were supposed to.” said Brown.

Freshman Zeke Kohl, sophomores Chris Bedros, Igor Shesukov, Payton Mills, juniors Chris Che, Kyle Kramer, Dominik Lockman and Xander Say as well as seniors Zane Kohl, Zach Payne, Kevin Kilner, and Suman Wang will be going to state to compete for MHS and have been preparing with their practices and past meets.   

“The athletes rose to the occasion and swam really well despite not being fully tapered,” Brown said, “so with a full taper I am excited to see how everyone will race and the further time drops we will have.”

The team will be traveling back to the Topeka area later this week in hopes that all their hard work will pay off at state.