To say there is no place like home, might be a little clishe', especially in Kansas. But the Hays High swimmers certainly looked comfortable in the home pool. The Indians hosted Junction City and Great Bend in an invitational meet on Monday, and Hays took first in eight of the 12 events.
The meet started with a bang. The 200 yard medley relay team of Connor Hess, Nathan Adams, Derek Dress and Trevor Robin won the event with a time of 1:53:88. That time was good enough to qualify them for the state meet.
Up next, the first of four wins for the Great Bend Panters. Justin Kuhlman would cruise to an easy win in the 200 yard free style. Later Kuhlman would also win the best race of the day, out touching Hays High's Tever Rohn to take the 100 free.
Hays would win the 200 IM, 100 breaststroke (both won by Adams), 50 free, 100 butterfly (both won by Dress), 500 free (Blake Matthews) and the 400 free relay (Dress, Matthews, Adams and Rohn).
Great Bend's other two wins would come in the 100 backstroke (Kyle Heeke) and 200 free relay (Heeke, Dylan Dreiling, Nick Moyers and Kuhlman).
Hays easily took the team title, with 208 points. Despite not winning a single event, Junction City was second with 140 points, Great Bend was third with 130 points.
