Manhattan Takes Second in League Meet

John Ostermann, Staff Writer

In their third home meet of the year, Manhattan’s boy’s swim team was cutting it close when they were tied with Washburn Rural for second place headed into the final race. The relay team of freshman Xander Say, junior Wyatt Balman, senior Trey Hafen and junior Preston Harrison pulled through as they beat out Washburn’s relay team by a full four seconds to secure the second place finish out of three teams.

Seaman placed first scoring 457 points and MHS scored 367 to take second, just beating out Washburn’s score of 364.

“Seaman and Washburn, both [are] very, very good programs, probably two of the best in our league,” head coach Alex Brown said. “I’d say Seaman, in my mind, is the top team in our league. Us and Washburn, probably, numbers two and three.”

The final relay, although the most important, was not the only great race swam by the Indians. Sophomore Kong Saito swam in his first individual medley and was very competitive finishing in fifth place.

“He’s never swam … in his life,” Brown said. “He had a great race. It was very clean. I was very impressed with how he did today.”

Balman also swam the individual medley taking second place.

The competition was not lacking as every race was close with the second place title coming down to a final relay.

“It was a very high-tension meet,” sophomore Suman Wang said. “We knew that Washburn and Seaman are very good teams, two of the top ones in league, and when they announced we were tied for second, things got serious.”

Washburn has become a rival for the Manhattan swim team as they are always very competitive.

“[Washburn] beat us last year in league by just a couple points,” Hafen said, “so we are really looking to get back at them this year. It has developed into a sort of rivalry between the two of us.”

Wang and Hafen finished two-hundredths of a second apart from each other in the 50 freestyle. Wang just barely out touched Hafen, seeming to stretch just a bit farther to secure the third place finish as Hafen finished fourth.

Harrison won both of his individual events, the 500 freestyle and the 100 backstroke.

“It helps a lot, and we know that wherever we put [Harrison], we’ve got a very, very good shot of winning that race,” Brown said.

The Indians diving team also competed with freshman Tysen Plummer finishing in second and sophomore Max Landsdowne finishing in third.

The diving team has a bit of a break then turn around as they hit the boards on Jan. 28. The swim team has a long intermission before their next meet as it comes at the beginning of February.