Great Bend Post Sports
The Western Athletic Conference is small with just its five schools, but Garden City and Hays are always tough to beat in the swimming pool. Thursday in Garden City, the Panther boys scored 176 points to finish fourth at the WAC championships. Garden City took the title with 390 points, followed by Hays with 346.5 points, and Dodge City with 246.5 points.
Great Bend got as close as fourth place in the 400 free relay. The team of Jordan Sander, Randy Weber, Kale Mermis, and Logan Urban finished in 4:31.41, two seconds behind third-place Garden City. The 200 free relay team of Sander, Urban, Mark Sperlein, and Matthew Williams placed fifth in 2:00.53, half a second out of fourth place and six seconds behind the bronze.
Williams finished fifth in the 100 breast in 1:24.31 to miss the bronze by eight seconds. AJ Schartz placed eighth in 1:36.61. Williams had another fifth-place finish in the 500 free in 6:48.74 to miss the bronze by 58 seconds. Sperlein finished sixth in the 200 IM in 2:47.32 to miss the bronze by 14 seconds. Schartz placed ninth in 3:23.54.
Weber swam sixth in the 200 free in 2:36.32, 23 seconds off bronze pace. Jordan Sander finished eighth in 2:38.17, and Tyler Scheuerman finished 10th in 3:00.84. Mermis placed sixth in the 50 free in 28.75, three seconds off the bronze. Urban finished 10th in 32.80, and Dylon Kalivoda placed 13th in 35.80.
The 200 medley relay squad of Sperlein, Williams, Mermis, and Urban placed sixth in 2:17.07, 13 seconds behind third-place Dodge City.
Leo Bashor placed 10th in the 100 back in 1:33.24, followed by Cade Urban in 11th in 1:35.22. A 1:12 was needed for the bronze in that race.