During the winter break — which interrupted the season — the Kansas State High School Activities Association has now announced their Top 20 Boy Swimmers and Divers in the state with many of the Manhattan High School swim and dive team included.  

“At this point, this list represents everybody in the state,” head coach Alex Brown said. “Top 16 is your goal, top eight or the medalist, so to be in that top 16 is a good indication at this point of the season.” 

Captain Xander Say, senior, placed 10th in the 100-yard breaststroke and 16th in the 500-yard freestyle events. 

“That’s really good placement right now but I’m looking for more improvement,” Say said.

Junior Igor Sheshukove took 18th place in the 100 breast along with Zeke Kohl, sophomore, 8th overall in diving with 320.15 points while senior Bandon Speilman placed seventh in the 50-yard free and ninth in the 100 free. Speilman, a top swimmer for MHS, attends school in Clay Center and uses a KSHSAA Cooperative Agreement to compete for Manhattan. 

“A cooperative agreement can be an agreement between two school districts, actually three, but in this case is just ourselves and Clay Center,” Athletic Director Mike Marsh said. “We can say yes or no to that, but we’ve always been welcoming to other school districts that don’t have certain sports programs.”

According to the Cooperative Agreement Speilman is not allowed to compete at league and competes in state for Clay Center. 

“He just goes straight from the last regular meet with us to state, which is a couple of weeks that he’s just tapering and training and not getting to compete,” Brown said.  

With all of the success of the team, they’ve now lost one of their varsity team members. Junior Hunter Rey left the team at the end of the semester when he moved away. Rey was ranked first in the 100 and 200-yard free in the top 20. The team was sad to see him go but now is focusing on getting ready for their next meets. 

Now that the break is over the team is back to the natatorium preparing for their two meets coming up tomorrow and Friday at the K-State Natatorium.