By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
He's the best swimmer in Great Bend High School history. At least in the 100-yard breaststroke. Senior Ellis Long set a new school record in that event last year, then topped his own record at the Class 5-1A State Swimming Championships in Lenexa on Feb. 18. With a second-place finish in that event, Long also becomes the first state runner-up in school history.
"That's definitely the goal, always to do better than last time," Long said. "It's definitely set up in a way that helps you do that. The first day, obviously, you're very prepared, more so than throughout the rest of the season, but you don't have as much competition the way they structure the meet. Day two, it's all out. You're swimming against the fastest people in the state. It's very intense and set up for as fast as you can go."
Long swam a 60.66 in the event at state last year to break a 14-year-old record at GBHS. He entered state with a seed time of 61.4, went almost a second faster in the prelims, then reset the school mark with a 60.06 in the finals.
Long was there when St. James Academy's John Amrein set the state meet record of 55.27. That was off the table this year, but Long actually led Andover's Noah Krueger three-quarters of the way through the finals. Long fell off in the final 25 yards, and Krueger took the title in 58.63.
"I get gassed really hard, historically, towards the last 12 and a half yards," Long said. "There's no power."
Long reset his own school mark, but a poor touch on the pad likely cost him at least a quarter of a second, if not more. Panther Coach Klara Gilbert believes he should have been in the mid 59s.
Great Bend swimmers were competing against club swimmers all season and especially at state. The top-eight finishers in the 100 breaststroke, minus Long, were club swimmers.
"It's noticeable that they have more stamina than me because they're swimming year-round," said Long. "That's not something I can compete with throughout the race. If you watch the video, I get noticeably slower while the state champion actually picks up pace throughout the race."
Long was also part of the 200-yard medley relay alongside senior Ty Boone, junior Beau Burkhart, and sophomore Kasey Kennedy that finished 12th. The 200-yard freestyle relay team of Boone, Kennedy, Burkhart, and Adam Hall placed 21st in preliminary action to miss the finals. Individually, Kennedy cut some time to reach the 100-yard butterfly finals where he fell to 16th overall.
"I couldn't have asked for better from all those kids," Gilbert said. "Kasey barely made it in the 100 butterfly and finished top-16, so that was huge for him. I think he was happy, but not happy with the second swim. That's where it comes to the club swimmers where they have more experience swimming back to back."
This year's state swim meet was held at the Shawnee Mission School District Aquatic Center in downtown Lenexa. The $28 million center opened in late 2019 and features the largest pool in Johnson County.
"The first thing you get is how big it is," Long said. "There are four pools in this room, and tons and tons of bleachers and hundreds of people. I think that's the biggest thing that stands out is just how many people are there and how nice this place is. It's definitely intimidating."
Long plans to attend Kansas State University next year to study engineering. His second-place finish at state is one step better than David Beahm's third-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle in 1996, and Justin Kuhlman's third-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke in 2014.