Hays Post
Following another state-qualifying effort at its last meet, the Hays High boys’ swim team has its sights set on one of its biggest goals of the season.
The Indians, who finished second in team scoring at the Salina South meet last week and qualified yet another relay team for state, are set to compete in the Western Athletic Conference Championships Thursday in Garden City.
Even with the WAC event being the last meet to qualify for state, the swimmers told Coach Tyler to enter them in events at WAC where he thinks they can score the most points.
“We have one or two guys on the verge of qualifying individually,” Stein said. “But they all agreed to put the team first. They really want to win the WAC team title.”
Stein, a former all-state high school swimmer from Great Bend, is familiar with WAC swim programs. So he pondered for a while which events to strategically place his small squad of 11 swimmers.
Most WAC schools have much larger squads than Hays High, and “the guys know we’re underdogs coming into it. It’s going to take everyone swimming their best race for us to win it.”
Stein is confident that goal is attainable because the Indians have been turning in record-breaking performances all season long.
They have already qualified all three of their relay teams for state, senior Marshall Sook has qualified in two individual events, and the Indians have hit state-consideration times in other events as well.
“Just them having the faith in themselves that they can win WAC is big,” Stein said.