Submitted
LENEXA – The Hays High boys’ swim team accomplished a season goal Saturday, bringing home some medals from the Class 5-1A State Swimming and Diving Championships.
The Indians placed in the top 10 of all three relays and finished in the top 15 in team scoring at 14th place.
Seniors Karsen Flaska, Chase Zadina and Seth Burkholder closed out their prep careers in style, joining junior Cedric Durr to claim the eighth-place medals in the final event of the day – the 400-yard relay team.
An all-out effort the day before had put that foursome into the medal round, cutting more than six seconds off their seed time to finish eighth among the qualifiers with a time of 3:36.36.
The top eight preliminary times at state qualify for Saturday’s medal round, with the ninth- through 16th-place times in prelim action compete in Saturday’s consolation finals.
Flaska, Zadina and Durr were part of all three state-qualifying relays for the Indians.
Senior Maison Desaire joined that threesome for a ninth-place finish in the 200y freestyle relay, claiming the top finish in the consolation bracket with a school-record time of 1:34.03.
The Indians’ 200y medley started off Saturday’s finals with a 10th-place finish. The Flaska-Zadina-Durr combo was joined by freshman Jace Herbers on that relay team.
In Friday’s prelims, Flaska began the 200y medley with the backstroke, followed by Herbers (breaststroke) and Durr (butterfly), before Zadina brought them home in the freestyle portion of the race for a school-record time of 1:47.06.
Zadina also competed in an individual event, just missing the qualifying time for Saturday’s finals with his 22nd-place finish in the 50y freestyle in Friday’s prelims.
Flaska also had qualified for state individually, in the 100y backstroke, but opted out of competing in that event to stay fresh for the relays.
It turned out to be a good decision.
Now, he and Zadina will leave Hays High as state medalists, as well as record holders in all three relays.