Hays Post
Hays High School won eight of the 11 events at its own boys’ swim meet Tuesday, bettering its seeding times for the meet in every single championship finish and recording several state-consideration times in the process.
Leading the way for HHS at Fort Hays State University’s Tiger Aquatics Center were senior Marshall Sook and juniors Karsen Flaska and Chase Zadina, who collectively were part of all eight of those championship performances.
Sook won the 50-yard freestyle with a state-qualifying time of 23.46 seconds, finished first in the 100-yard butterfly with a state-consideration time and joined Flaska and Zadina on the first-place 200-yard and 400-yard relay teams.
Flaska won the 200-yard individual medley and the 100-yard breaststroke. Zadina won the individual 200-yard and 100-yard freestyle races and might have saved his best for last when he anchored the 400-yard freestyle relay to its season-best time in the day's final race.
That winning time of 3 minutes, 49.21 seconds, not only crushed the Indians’ previous-best time by more than 7 seconds but also hit the state-consideration standard for that event.
Completing the foursome for that relay team was sophomore Cedric Durr, who also placed second in the 100-yard backstroke and third in the 50-yard freestyle races.
The final member of the 200-yard relay team was junior Jude Hileman, who also finished runner-up in the 100-yard butterfly and third in the 100-yard backstroke, a performance that helped the Indians claim a 1-2-3 sweep in that event.
Rounding out the list of top-three finishes for the Indians was junior Noah Schaeffer, who finished third in the 100-yard breaststroke, shaving more than 5 seconds off his previous season-best time.
Garden City and Junction City, which fielded enough swimmers to have several entries in each event, finished first and second in team scoring with 496 and 465 points, respectively. Because of their multiple championship efforts, the Indians scored an impressive 449 points to finish third in team scoring.
Next up for the Indians is Tuesday at the Topeka High meet at the Hummer Sports Complex’s Capitol Federal Natatorium in Topeka.