MHS Girls Swim and Dive is entering the postseason with momentum on their side. The Indians have taken home gold medals at four of their last five invitationals: Salina South on April 9, Topeka West on April 14, Hayden on April 22 and Marion on April 24.
The lone blemish on an otherwise perfect record was a ninth-place finish at the Kapaun Invitational on April 11. This isn’t a setback for Manhattan, but rather a sign of success. Kapaun is the biggest meet of the season with the largest schools. At Hayden and Salina South, the Indians blew the competition out of the water, winning with margins of 136 and 187 respectively. MHS’ performances at Topeka West and Marion weren’t easy victories however. Both meets contained league competition, showing good signs for League on May 14.
“It [Marion] felt great…being able to win meets and as a team, even though we lost a bunch of good swimmers this offseason,” senior Ava McKee said. “It feels good that we all come together as a team and put in the work and win.”
While MHS may have swept at Salina and Topeka West, the meets still offered experience crucial for the postseason.
“It was nice that there were some teams at Salina that had some good individuals and good relays for us to race against, which is always how we’re going to get faster,” coach Alex Brown said. “Topeka West, that meet was nice because the whole Centennial League was at the meet, plus maybe two or three more schools. It wasn’t a huge meet, but it was nice to see that we are beating everybody in our league as we get ready for league in a couple of weeks.”
The Indian’s ninth place in Wichita at the Kapaun Invitational was their lowest performance all season. However, they’re not letting one result dictate their season.
“We didn’t place super high, but that’s okay,” Brown said. “There’s a lot of really good teams there. We just wanted to compete. Given the other teams, and the facilities they have, and how many year round kids they have compared to us, we did pretty well for where we were at. We saw lots of season best times, and that’s all we really were there for.”
With the end of the regular season comes the end of the year for junior varsity.
“A lot of our J.V. kids, they’re brand new to the sport, or they’re not very experienced with it,” Brown said. “We’re looking for their technique getting better. Are there dives and their turns better? Are their times getting faster? And that is what we saw. We saw them improve a significant amount from the beginning to the end. And that’s it’s nice thing about swim.You can see the benefit of the work you put in directly and how much faster you get.”
League takes place on May 14, giving Manhattan plenty of time to prepare and recover. MHS is optimistic about their competitiveness in the Centennial League.
“In the next couple of weeks, we just have practice after practice after practice,” senior Caris Goering said. “We just have to show up to practice with a really good attitude and expect it to be hard and just give it as much effort as you can so that it can, so we can be best prepared for League. I think we’re going to win League. I don’t really think there’s a doubt about it.”
After League comes the State meet on May 21-23. While State qualifiers aren’t set in stone yet, Manhattan is guaranteed to have a strong showing.
“Being a senior, it’s pretty sad, after going through it for four years, and then graduating and leaving,” McKee said. “But I’m really proud of how our team has done this year. I think we’ve all felt the most like family this year. Everyone’s been so nice and so loving. It’s a really good environment.”
