BY JIM MISUNAS
jmisunas@gbtribune.com
SALINA — The Great Bend girls earned five state-qualifying times, won three events and made their coach proud at Friday’s Salina Central Swimming Invitational.
The swimmers dedicated their performances to teammate Madison Huslig, whose father died Friday.
“This group of girls showed so much poise and character today — swimming with heavy hearts due to the unexpected death of Maddie Huslig’s father,” said Great Bend coach Steve Beaumont. “We had a lot of tears before getting on the bus. But I knew that getting in the pool and competing was the best thing for us. We wanted to swim hard today for Maddie and for Dr. Huslig. I was proud for these girls and how they supported each other today and how well they competed.”
The Panthers did the unexpected — swimming their season best with five state qualifying times. Runner-up Aubrey Snapp qualified in the 50 freestyle (26.97) and won the 100 freestyle (58.7). First-place finisher Olivia Mull qualified in the 100 breaststroke (1:15.52). The Panthers qualified with first-place 200 medley relay (2:04.8) with Katherine Snapp, Olivia Mull, Ruth Williams and Aubrey Snapp; and the runner-up 200 freestyle relay (1:541.83) with Olivia Mull, Ruth Williams, Brynn Boxberger and Aubrey Snapp.
Ruth Williams posted a state consideration time with a third place in the 100 butterfly (1:10.26).
“We ended the day with five state qualifying times after not have any qualifiers prior to the meet,” Beaumont said. “It was truly a team effort. We had so many season best times today by nearly every swimmer on the team.”
The relays posted the most surprising times of the day, beating their previous times by several seconds.
“Our relays swam incredibly well for us today. You know, we’ve struggled the last few meet on our relays, so that was a big thing for us today. We were really hitting on all cylinders today which was good to see.”
Great Bend competes at Tuesday’s Hutchinson High Invitational.
SALINA CENTRAL INVITATIONAL
TEAM SCORES—1—McPherson 497; 2—Great Bend 375; 3—Campus 287; 4—Salina Central 265; 5—Emporia 214; 6—Dodge City 140; 7—Junction City 99; 8—Salina South 85, Liberal 85; 10—Holcomb 66; 11—Hays High 57
50 freestyle—1—Schutt, Campus, 25.58; 2—A. Snapp, 26.97; 10—Lang, 30.25; 29—Holguin, 35.82
100 backstroke—1—Burmaster, SC, 1:05.74; 5—K. Snapp, 1:13.07; 10—Panzer, 1:20.11; 13—Pedigo, 1:25.44
100 breaststroke—1—Mull, GB, 1:15.52; 7—Ibarra, 1:25.97; 13—Boxberger, 1:32.06
100 butterfly—1—Carlson, McPherson, 1:07.59; 3—Williams, 1:10.26; 5—Amy To, 1:19.44
100 freestyle—1—Aubrey Snapp, GB, 58.7; 15—Lang, 1:08.51; 17—Soupiset, 1:11.03
200 freestyle—1—Trost, McPherson, 2:10.03; 2—A. Snapp, 2:17.69; 8—Mayhill, 2:27.06; 9—Panzer, 2:29.01; 22—Mason, 2:58.33
200 IM—1—Moore, SC, 2:37.48; 5—K. Snapp, 2:44.11; 7—Cape, 2:53.42; 8—Amy To, 2:54.26
500 freestyle—1—Schutt, Campus, 5:56.01; 7—Mayhill, 6:32.24; 10—Cape, 6:49.82; 15—Pedigo, 7:21.55
200 free relay—1—Campus, 1:51.02
2—GB A, 1:51.83 (Mull, Williams. Boxberger, Aubrey Snapp)
9—GB B, 2:03.27 (Amy To, Ibarra, Soupiset, Lang)
17—GB C, 2:13.97 (Dougherty, Mason, Jones, Mayhill)
GB D, 2:34.02 (Irwin, Muth, B. Allen, Holguin)
200 medley relay—1—GB A, 2:04.8 (K. Snapp, Mull, Williams, A. Smapp)
6—GB B, 2:18.09 (Amy To, Ibarra, Boxberger, Cape)
400 freestyle relay—1—McPherson, 4:08.03
6—GB A, 4:28.38 (Williams, K. Snapp, Lang, Panzer)
8—GB B, 4:33.99 (Cape, Soupiset, Mayhill, Mull)
15—GB C, 5:16.77 (Mason, Jones, Ibarra, Dougherty)
