Starting off Manhattan High’s season with back-to-back meets pushed the swim team to see how real the season gets.

“I think for a lot of people, they’re just realizing how they need to go about racing,” senior Katie Bussmann said.  “And we had a meet [Thursday]. So I think it’s that they’re super tired. A lot of them, that was their first swim meet. So I think now, with that experience on their back, they’re more prepared and they have the right mindset going in to everything.”

Bussmann, who placed eighth in the 100-yard breaststroke and placed ninth in the 200-yard medley relay with three others, noted improvement in technique from the sixth at Emporia last Thursday and several girls making best times at home.

“For them, it’s fun for our new kids the amount of improvement they make even within the first week, they learn a lot of technique,” coach Jerry Carpenter said. “Several of them went to Emporia and we saw tremendous time drops from a lot of the girls and a little bit more tonight.”

With 278 points scored for a fourth place finish overall, the team had placements in the top 16 across all twelve events including a ninth place finish in the 200 yard medley relay, fourth and ninth place finishes in the 400 yard freestyle race and  first and 10th place finishes in the 200 yard freestyle relay. In the diving event, senior Lauren Carlson earned fourth place and sophomore Elizabeth Underwood followed with eighth place. Seniors Mariah Scipio and Justice Bishop took second and 10th respectively in the 50 yard freestyle. Scipio also got fifth in the 500 yard freestyle and Bishop took 11th in the 100 yard freestyle with sophomores Leilani Kreck and Lauren Casper finishing eighth and ninth in the 100 yard freestyle.

“Swimming two nights in a row and getting back pretty late, it was kind of difficult,” junior Robyn Burton said. “I could’ve swam better. But I swam a new event today. So counting that in, I felt it wasn’t that bad of a meet.”

With the immediate competition starting off their season, the team looks at tomorrow’s meet at home understanding what to expect from all levels of competition.

“I think the beauty of competing early is that allows the kids to really understand what they need to work on,”

Carpenter said. “It puts it in much better perspective. We can tell them in practice. But until they actually do it in a meet, they’re like ‘I get it.’”