Though it was impossible for the Emporia boys swim team to catch Newton and capture first place at the Emporia Invitational on Thursday night, the Spartans entered the last event of the night — the 400-meter relay — with plenty left to swim for.
EHS went into the night’s final swim holding a mere 1-point lead, 245-244, over Seaman for second place, giving the 400-meter relay races added consequence.
Emporia’s “A” relay team of Aaron Clark, Dillon Suprian, Tyler Michales and Adam Coburn finished third overall in a time of 3 minutes, 45.45 seconds, two places ahead of Seaman’s “A” team.
But it was an eighth-place showing (4:08.89) by the EHS “B” team of Cody Yevak, Andrew Wayman, Justin Prentiss and Scott Peterson one heat earlier — Seaman’s “B” team finished ninth — that more than likely sealed the deal for the Spartans, as EHS finished with 301 points to Seaman’s 284 to finish second behind Newton (513).
“That last race, the 400-yard relay, is so hard because they are so tired,” EHS coach Bob Yevak said. “The key to a meet like this is really your ‘B’ relay, because you can score a ton of points if they finish well.”
For the Spartans, it was their second meet in three days after Tuesday’s West Invitational in Topeka, and the team did not come close to matching the 31 personal- and season-best times it set on Tuesday. However, Yevak said fatigue played a role in the slower times, but added that he saw better fundamental swimming in Thursday’s meet.
“Our kids swam really hard,” Yevak said. “We didn’t have near as many personal-bests times today — we had some — but I am really excited. You can’t have a best time every time you swim ... but we worked with some of the kids on their technique, and man they looked so much better.”
One swimmer who continued his strong performance since the winter break was Clark, who did a repeat of Tuesday’s performance by winning the 100-yard and 200-yard freestyle events in rather easy fashion. After qualifying for the State meet in both events on Tuesday, Clark bested his 100-yard time even more, swimming it in 51.01 seconds after recording a 51.60 two days prior.
“I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to recover after the 200, but I got it done,” Clark said after his 100-yard race, his second event of the day. “We’ve been working real hard. Endurance paid off.”
In the 100- and 200-yard races, Clark took control of both races thanks to a strong turns at the walls, which allowed him to create a gap on Topeka High’s Adam Sims, who finished second to Clark in both races.
“When I first went out, I started off a little slow,” Clark said. “After my first flip-turn, I got into the rhythm of the race and started to pull away a little bit. My flip-turns are what help me. On that last 50 yards, I knew I had it.”
Three EHS swimmers showed their endurance in the 500-yard freestyle, as Coburn took third place in a time of 5:51.08 and was followed by Michales in fifth (6:13.37) and Wayman in 11th (6:27.50). Coburn and Michales also finished eighth and 13th, respectively, in the 200-yard IM.
Yevak in the 100-yard butterfly and Miles Ringgold in the 100-yard breaststroke turned in a pair of eighth-place finishes, while Suprian came in 10th in the 100-yard backstroke to highlight other top Spartan performances.
Coach Yevak said while his team had performed strong in the first week back from nearly a month-long layoff, he was even more excited to see the Spartans’ progress in the next few weeks once the practices begin to taper off in preparation for the Centennial League meet.
“We’ll taper for four weeks, and right before the league meet, they’ll really start to feel energized,” Yevak said. “They’ll feel like King Kong. We might not win the league meet — Manhattan looks pretty strong — but we’ll swim fast.”