After grueling practices and many days of hard training, the offseason work put in by the Manhattan High swim team was ready to be put to the test. Manhattan opened up their swim season with a fourth place finish at the Topeka West Invite on Wednesday.

“I was very excited for the first meet,” senior Harrison Jones said. “With all the expectations surrounding this team I was just excited to see how the team would compete as a whole. The majority of our upperclassmen swim with the Manhattan Marlins, so they stay in shape and are swimming year round. Everyone else has worked hard at our latest practices to perfect things such as our kick turns and starts.”

Junior Suman Wang experienced some unexpected trouble after his first race. While he was performing a flip turn, Wang pushed off the wall with his feet and split the skin on one of his heels. This sidelined him for the rest of the meet and will keep him out for their next two meets.

“It is definitely hard to sit out and watch everyone swim especially when we have such good competition this week,” Wang said. “I just have to make sure I don’t push myself and do more than I can before I am ready so I can make it back in the pool as soon as possible.”

Manhattan will prepare to host their next meet against Dodge City, Lawrence and Lawrence Free State tomorrow.

“It is good to have a meet under our belts,” Jones said. “Practice helps, but you learn a lot more when you are on the blocks at a meet.”