HAYSVILLE, Kan. – McPherson Boys Swimming Coach Matt Cotton said, “It was possibly our best team performance of the year,” as the Bullpups traveled to a meet hosted by Campus on Thursday, finishing third, in the final meet that Smoky Valley would be able to join Mac High for the full meet, coming out with a third place finish.
Coach Cotton mentioned the meet being an extremely close fight at the top between Campus of and league rivals Winfield. “While we were able to capture 1st place in 4 out of the 9 individual events, it all came down to the final relay, and we ended up just 7 points off the win.” said Cotton.
“We had come in with the goal of winning the meet, and the guys came in fired up. That energy carried over into several new season PRs and state consideration cuts for guys who had been fighting for them all year.” Tytus Reed led the Pups with two first place finishes in both the 50 Freestyle, and 100 Butterfly. Gabe House would take first in the 500 Freestyle, and 3rd in the 200 IM, while Cristian Garcia took 1st in the 100 Breaststroke, and 4th in the 200 Freestyle. Reid Schuckman finished 2nd in the 100 Freestyle, and 3rd 100 Backstroke.
Cotton mentioned that his team is to the point where to qualify either MHS or SVHS relays for State, they have to be swum using only representatives of their respective schools. Both the SVHS Medley Relay (Spooner, House, Reed, Klapp) and the MHS 200 FR Relay (R. Schuckman, B. Schuckman, Elder, Garcia) came up just shy of the time needed for consideration, but with one more chance coming up next week at league, Coach Cotton said, “We’re confident it can be done.” Both squads placed 3rd overall, while the combined relay of Tytus Reed, Gabe House, Reid Schuckman, and Cristian Garcia placed 2nd with a new best time in their last chance to swim together as our “A” relay for the year.
Those 4 consistently topped the time sheets for the Bullpups, though they were helped by stellar swims all down the roster.
Coach Cotton mentioned other notable performances that came from; Palmer Heskett, who was 4th in the 500 Freestyle, and 8th in the 200 Freestyle. Adrian Noriega finished 4th in the 100 Breaststroke, while Tito Mendez was 8th in the 500 Freestyle.
Currently, Tytus Reed is the only swimmer with an outright state qualifying time, but Cotton noted that he now has four guys with a chance to make the cut. House improved his consideration time in the 500 Freestyle, while Reid Schuckman and Cristian Garcia grabbed their first consideration time, Schuckman in the 100 Freestyle, and Garcia his first in the 100 Breaststroke.
With the outside chance that one or both of the MHS and SVHS relays could get their consideration time in the next meet, Coach Cotton said, “We are right where we need to be to meet our preseason goals for our state team this year.”
He mentioned that he told the guys on the bus Thursday, that this was the best team swim of the year, he said, “Even though we came up just short of our goal to win this one, we swam with a purpose and a fire that was a blast to watch.” Cotton concluded his reflection by saying, “We’ve got one more shot at League, and we’re going to make the most of it.”
The League Meet will take place Saturday, February 11, in Hutchinson. Races are set to begin at 10 a.m.
Below are the Team Results from the Campus Swim Meet:
Winfield 459
Campus 454
McPherson 452
Valley Center 356
Liberal 118
El Dorado 117
Wichita Trinity 67
