Opening the season, Manhattan High School girls swim team brought home the first place title Thursday in the Salina South Invite against Great Bend High School, Salina South High School, Hutchinson High School and Hays High School with a collective 508 points amongst all the swimmers. 

Starting the meet strong, senior Juliet Balman, junior Ruth Perez, senior Sophia Steffensmeier and sophomore Samantha Tarter placed second in the 200m-medley relay with a final time of 2:04.13. 

Balman proceeded to place second in the 100-free with a time of 1:03.01, fifth in the 100-back with a time of 1:14.99 and first in the 400-free relay alongside senior Avery Inman, senior Sophia Steffensmeier and junior Ruth Perez. They had a total time of 4:08.49.

“After our first meet I think the rest of the season will be great,” Balman said. “Overall the team swam really well, especially with so many new swimmers this year.”

Steffensmeier also won first place in the 100m-fly with a final time of 1:03.24 and the 500-free with a final time of 5:49.00. 

“I am very optimistic about the rest of the season for our team and for me individually,” Steffensmeier said. “We swam our hearts out on Thursday and we were able to walk away with not only a win but closer ties to one another.” 

Senior Avery Inman placed second in the 200-individual medley (IM), second in the 500- free and second in the 200- free relay with senior Audrey Conley, sophomore Samantha Tarter and freshman Ava McKee. Senior Audrey Conley placed fifth in the 50-free and 6th in the 100- back alongside her first place relay. After placing second in the 200- medley relay, junior Ruth Perez placed first in the 200-IM with a time of 2:24.60, first in the 100-back with a time of 1:13.67 and finishing out the first meet of the season with the first place 400-free relay. 

MHS swim and dive has one diver between boys and girls, junior Breanne Sanneman. Placing third in the 1m-dive, she also swam in 50-free and placed 11th with a time of 33.46 and ninth in the 200-free relay alongside with sophomore Angie Chae, freshman Agnes Choi and freshman Sadie Hough.

With the next meet on Tuesday in Topeka the team is continuing to improve and continue to work on cutting times with the end goal being winning league and sending as many swimmers to state. 

“Overall we did win as a team but I don’t think our Varsity swam as well as we could’ve,” head coach Alex Brown said. “We thought our [Junior Varsity] group swam really well. They had really good races and got to learn how the meets work.”