The Lady Panther swim team came out of the gates swinging. In the very first event of the season, four Great Bend High swimmers punched their ticket to state. Several others swam state consideration times, and the Lady Panthers finished second Thursday in Salina.
The 200-yard medley relay needed to swim just under 2:08 to qualify for state later this spring. The squad of senior Elly Somers, junior Emilee Hall, and sophomores Clarise Snapp and Josephine Mazouch dominated the field for the win by nearly a second in 2:03.31. That time is less than three seconds shy of a school record in just the first meet of the season.
The 200 Freestyle relay team of Hall, Mazouch, senior Kamryn Johns, and sophomore Ally Howard won by nearly four seconds in 1:56.48 to come in two seconds under the state consideration time and four seconds shy of the qualification time.
Somers swam the 200-yard IM five seconds under the state consideration time for the silver in 2:34.29, still 10 seconds behind the gold. Snapp placed fifth in 2:51.96, and Howard finished behind her in 2:56.95. Hall and Somers swam consideration times as the second and third-place finishers in the 100 Back, respectively. Hall finished in 1:08.58 to miss qualification by just over a second, and Somers finished in 1:09.37, 1.5 seconds under the consideration time.
Mazouch also swam consideration times in two individual events. She won the 100 Free by sa second in 1:02.02. She missed qualification by less than a second in the 50-yard Free for the silver in 27.73. Hall just missed the consideration time by 0.09 seconds for the bronze in 28.28.
Snapp just made the consideration time by less than a second in the 100 Breast, finishing second in 1:21.03 to miss the gold by more than seven seconds. Junior Ava Gregg placed fourth in 1:28.06 to miss the bronze by seven seconds.
Freshman Braylee Carper won the 200-yard freestyle by five seconds in 2:26.21, with Gregg swimming third in 2:40.54.