To call the Emporia High boys swimming team’s season-opening performance a pleasant surprise to coach Bob Yevak would be putting it mildly.
“I’m shocked,” Yevak said with a smile.
Shocked that the Spartans, who lost most of their best swimmers from last season, won the four-team Emporia Invite on Thursday. Shocked that his team did it without a key senior in Cord Stanley, who was suffering from an illness.
Of course, Yevak knew going in that Emporia would have the edge in quantity. The Spartans racked up 365 points, beating Field Kindley by 42 points. Derby finished third with 291 points, and Hayden had 230.
“Usually, Derby’s pretty strong, but they don’t have near the kids,” Yevak said. “We have so damn many kids, we scored in almost everything.”
That was how the Spartans did it while winning just one swimming event: the 200-yard freestyle, which Michael Stauffer won by eight-and-a-half seconds with his time of 2 minutes, 22.93 seconds. EHS also won the diving competition, in which only one of the six competitors wasn’t a Spartan diver. Derek Krause, who took sixth at state last year, scored 208.35 points off the board to win the event, Brett Schaefer took second with 178.90 and Sam Nolan earned third with 156.35.
Stauffer also earned a second-place finish in the 500 free with a time of 6:35.31, and Dillon Supiran finished second in the 100 backstroke at 1:10.16, about six seconds behind Derby freshman Erik Russell. Spartan relay teams finished as runners-up in the 200 medley and the 200 freestyle; the 200 medley team of Supiran, Larkin Bennett, Cody Yevak and Tommy Hudson clocked at 2:00.45, and the 200 free team finished in 1:49.04, just a little over a second behind the winning team from Hayden.
Bennett’s performance in the 100 breaststroke was Yevak’s favorite among his veterans. The 100 breast was one event where Yevak thought the Spartans would have problems this year, but Bennett showed him something with his third-place performance and time of 1:17.63.
“He swam really well,” Yevak said. “I mean, that’s the best I’ve seen him swim the 100 breaststroke, and he’s not in shape. But he’s so much stronger this year than he was last year. He’s gonna do well.”
In other top-three finishes for Emporia, Tommy Hudson earned third in the 50 free and the 100 free, and the 400 free relay team of Cody Muckenthaler, Stauffer, Yevak and Supiran also took third.
“I get excited the first meet every year, because I get to see the new kids swim,” Yevak said. “And we had some new kids swim today faster in the 50 and the 100 freestyle and relays than I’ve ever had, and they’re gonna be varsity swimmers here in about a month.”
The next Emporia Invite will be next Wednesday and Thursday, with diving on Wednesday at 4 p.m. and swimming on Thursday at 4. After that, the swim team won’t be back in action until it travels to Topeka on Jan. 13.
Team scores
Emporia 365, Field Kindley 323, Derby 291, Hayden 230.
EHS results
200 medley relay
2. Emporia A (Supiran, Bennett, Yevak, Hudson), 2:00.45; 4. Emporia B (Muckenthaler, Hastings, Schlup, Garcia), 2:08.66; 9. Emporia C (Hrabik, Stair, Stone, Rivera), 2:31.92.
200 freestyle
1. Stauffer, 2:22.93; 5. Johnson, 2:49.72.
200 individual medley
5. Bennett, 2:51.95.
50 freestyle
3. Hudson, 25.97; 4. Supiran, 26.44.
1-meter diving
1. Krause, 208.35; Schaefer, 178.90; Nolan, 156.35.
100 butterfly
5. Schlup, 1:18.20.
100 freestyle
3. Hudson 59.69; 4. Schaefer, 1:03.08; 8. Garcia, 1:06.43.
500 freestyle
2. Stauffer, 6:35.31; 5. Johnson, 8:11.67; 6. Rivera, 8:14.79.
200 freestyle relay
2. Emporia A (Yevak, Schlup, Garcia, Hudson), 1:49.04; 6. Emporia D (Nolan, Keisler, Burch, Cuadra), 2:04.83; 7. Emporia B (Krause, Patterson, Shaver, Schaefer), 2:08.87; 10. Emporia C (Rose, Parks, Buster, Tennal), 2:17.58.
100 backstroke
2. Suprian, 1:10.16; 4. Muckenthaler, 1:20.01; 9. Hrabik, 1:38.92.
100 breaststroke
3. Bennett, 1:17.63; 7. Hastings, 1:33.80; 8. Stair, 1:42.05.
400 freestyle relay
3. Emporia A (Muckenthaler, Stauffer, Yevak, Supiran), 4:17.38; 6. Emporia C (Stone, Tennal, Cuadra, Keisler), 5:15.24.