Manhattan High girls swim took first place at Topeka High on Tuesday, followed by a fourth place finish in Lansing on Saturday. 

The team has faced challenges finding a facility to practice in. This season, practices have been held at Genesis Health Club in Manhattan, taking the place as their third new pool in three years.

“It does get to be a struggle some days,” head coach Alex Brown said, “we don’t have a lot of space compared to what we had when we had the K State pool, but we’ve adapted really well to it, and we’re thankful we have somewhere in town to go with our team right now.”

The team had confidence going into their meet on Tuesday against Junction City High school and Topeka High School. The girls finished 100 points ahead of JC and took a first place finish.

“We were happy with [the meet],” Brown said. “It was one we were pretty confident we were going to win.”

The team had several consecutive first, second, and third finishes in multiple events, giving them a perfect score. 

The 200 yard free had a first place finish by sophomore Ruth Perez with a time of 2:08.06, a second place finish from freshman Samantha Tarter in 2:35.68 and a third place finish from Senior Brooke Newcomer with a time of 2:40.38.

The 200 yard IM had another perfect finish for MHS with junior Sophia Steffensmeier placing first with a time of 2:24.36, junior Avery Inman placing second in 2:44.73 and junior Soledad Rodriguez in third with a time of 3:02.05.

The 500 yard free was another event with first, second and third finishes, by Inman with a time of 6:23.77, Juliet Balman with a time of 6:56.76, and Tartar with a time of 7:14.01.

The 100 yard backstroke had strong finishes with Steffensmeier in first with a time of 1:07.93, Balman in second with a time of 1:15.83, and Junior Audrey Conley with a time of 1:16.24. 

Despite swimming in new events, the team performed well

“It’s a meet where I mixed up everybody’s events,” Brown said, “so it’s a good chance for us to get a few new events under our belt as we start off our season.”

With two wins behind them, the girls competed at Lansing on Saturday finishing fourth out of the 11 the schools that competed. Despite the tough competition in Lansing, the team had a good performance in their Relays.

The team’s relay events had a second place finish in the 200 yard medley. Balman, Perez, Steffensmeier and Conley swam a 2:03.88.

The 400 yard 4×100 IM relay finished third. Steffensmeier, Inman, Perez and Balman swam a 4:40.58.

The 200 yard Butterfly Relay finished third with a time of 2:07.76 with Rodriguez, Graves, Steffensmeier and Perez.

The 200 yard Breaststroke Relay came in second. Graves, Inman, Sergi and Perez swam a 2:31.16.

Heading into the next competition the team is eager to keep up their strong performance.

“I think all of our practices have really paid off so far,” Conley said, “so I’m excited to see what the future brings.” 

MHS girls will compete in Salina next week

“Next week, we’re back in Salina and there’ll be some teams that are going to be stronger than what we’ve seen so far,” Brown said, “so hopefully that will challenge us to rise up a little bit and continue winning.”