Maize beat the host school Manhattan to take first at the Manhattan Swimming and Diving Invitational. However, coach Hussein Yassin still sees room for improvement.
"It was a good meet," Yassin said. "I wasn't too impressed with how some of the swims went, but overall with the training we did this week, I like that they took first."
So far, Maize has won eight out of the nine meets they competed in.
They were lead, in part, by senior Lucas Popp who took first in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:45.09 and the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 52.94.
"We've been working pretty hard in practice," Popp said. "We're still pretty tired, but I think I went out there and did the best I could."
Popp said he enjoyed swimming in such a big meet.
"Personally, I love competition. There's a lot of great swimmers here."
He was also part of the winning 200-yard freestyle relay team, and the and the 400-yard freestyle relay team. Team members for both relays were Preston Barley, Grant Latimer and Chris Clemons.
Clemons also knocked out two individual wins in the 200-yard IM and the 100-yard breaststroke. Trent Pirner of Collegiate finished in second for the breaststroke, with Brett Young of Maize getting a third-place finish.
Trailing second place by 16 points, Wichita Heights took the third spot in the standings.
Despite being sick all week, Heights sophomore Bryce Blattner had a good showing. He was part of the team that won first in the 200-yard medley relay, along with Zach Zimmerman, Kyle Cullinan & Dawson Gantenbein. Wichita Collegiate and Maize South rounded out the top 3.
Blattner also took first in the 500-yard freestyle. He finished with a time of 5:05.61. Salina Central's Matt Martin got out to a quick start, but Blattner held his pace for the win.
"I know my pace and everything," Blattner said. "I've seen him race before and I knew he was going to try to go out fast so I was just like 'wait for my time and take care of business.'"
Blattner qualified for state with that swim.
"I was there last year, the pressure got to me," Blattner said. "This year I'm trying to do a lot better."
Another highlight for local teams came in the 100-free, where Greyson Heckman of Maize South won, but the top seven spots all came from Wichita area schools.
