Great Bend Post Sports
Tuesday's Great Bend High School Swim Invitational at Barton Community College was mostly a Western Athletic Conference affair with five of the six teams in action hailing from the league. Garden City scored 444 points to take the title, followed by Hays with 426 points and Hutchinson with 347 points. Great Bend finished fifth with 244 points.
Matthew Williams led the way with a silver medal in the 500 free in 7:26.67 to miss the gold by 53 seconds. He finished 21 seconds ahead of the bronze-medal winner from Garden City. Williams finished seventh in the 200 IM in 2:59.10, followed by Jordan Sander in eighth in 3:22.75. A 2:32 was needed to make the top three.
The 400 free relay team of Sander, Randy Weber, Mark Sperlein, and Kale Mermis placed third in 4:52.52, 30 seconds behind second place. The team of Tyler Scheuerman, Dylon Kalivoda, Leo Bashor, and Cade Urban finished ninth in 6:17.73.
The 200 medley relay squad of Sperlein, Williams, Sander, and Mermis placed fifth in 2:28.07 to miss the bronze by 17 seconds. The team of Kalivoda, AJ Schartz, Zach Hart, and Charlie Maharjan finished seventh in 2:47.41. The 200 free relay team of Hart, Weber, Williams, and Mermis missed the bronze medal by 17 seconds to finish seventh in 2:08.72.
Individually, Sperlein placed fifth in the 100 fly in 1:21.77, just five seconds out of third place. He finished seventh in the 200 free in 2:44.86 to miss the bronze by 23 seconds. Schartz placed 11th in 3:01.55. Mermis led the team in the 50 free in 30.81 to miss the bronze by four seconds. Hart placed 10th in 30.81, and Weber hit the wall in 32.33 for 12th. Weber swam 13th in the 100 back in 1:45.67, followed by Kalivoda in 14th in 1:48.13. The top-two swimmers in the race finished in under 1:08. Schartz placed eighth in the 100 breast in 1:39.12.