The Manhattan High girls swim team placed first with a total of 537 points at the Hayden Invite last Wednesday.

“[The meet] went really well,” sophomore Audrey Conley said.Overall I think our team did pretty good.” 

In the 200 yard Freestyle, sophomore Sophia Steffensmeier placed first, sophomore Paige Chauncey placed fifth and junior Brooke Newcomer placed sixth. In the 200 yard Individual Medley, freshman Ruth Perez placed first, senior Talia Francois placed third and junior Meredith Graves placed fifth. In the 100 yard butterfly, Perez placed first, Francois placed second and sophomore Soledad Rodriguez placed fifth. 

In the 100 yard Freestyle, senior Sydney Hicks placed third and sophomore Paige Chauncey placed fourth.

“It wasn’t my worst meet I’ve ever swam, but definitely wasn’t my best,” Hicks said.

In the 100 yard Breastroke, sophomore Avery Inman placed second and junior Ava Sergi placed sixth. In the 100 yard backstroke, Conley placed fifth.

In the 50 yard Freestyle, Hicks placed second and Conley placed third. In the 500 yard freestyle, Steffensmeier placed first and Inman placed third.

In the 200 yard Medley relay, the team of Conley, Perez, Francois and Hicks placed first and freshman Breanne Sanneman, Inman, Rodriguez and junior Grace Dixon placed sixth. In the 200 yard Freestyle relay, the team of Newcomer, junior Kylee Koerner, Rodriguez and Graves placed third. 

In the 400 yard Freestyle relay, the team of Francois, Hicks, Chauncey and Steffensmeier placed first and Koerner, Newcomer, Graves and Inman placed sixth.

“Our relays continue to improve,” coach Alexander Brown said. “All three relays are currently ranked in the top 8 of in the state for class 6A.”

Practice for the team has been a struggle, but they are grateful to have practice and have a season. The team has gotten closer as well due to the small area.

“Having practice in general is always good. We’ve gotten to know each other a lot more because the pool is smaller than normal,” Hicks said, “So we’re all packed into the pool together instead of being in two different pools normally.”

Conley hopes to work on breathing exercise and endurance for the coming up meets in order to improve and drop times.

“I think we could do more breathing activities so we don’t take as many breaths down the pool,” Conley said.

The next meet will be at Great Bend April 30. This will be the last meet for many of the J.V. girls.

“Our hope is to get another first place finish and to see some season-best times from our JV athletes,” Brown said. “This will be the last meet of the season for many of them.”