Buffs swimming falls just short in Salina; tennis seventh

Salina, Kan (westernkansasnews.com)-It’s no secret on who Garden City’s biggest rival is in the pool: Great Bend. So it wasn’t shocking to see those teams neck-and-neck Friday in Salina. 

But for the second time in five days, Casey Wise’s team came in second-49 points behind the Lady Panthers. 

Still, there were plenty of bright spots-like senior Samantha Norton edging Hutch’s Toni Lehr by more than a second in the 200-yard individual medley. Abigail Ginest-Dougherty placed third in the 50-yard free style behind Salina Central’s Paige Jonson and Great Bend’s Hannah Hildebrand. Hildebrand followed that up with an event-best 1:05:52 in the 100-yard butterfly. 

Claire Schmidt was tops in the 500-yard freestyle-posting a 6:16:02; nearly three seconds better than second-place finisher Leatha Craft from Salina Central.

Arguably the best race of the day saw the Panthers and Buffs in second and third place respectively in the 400-yard free style. The last leg was Great Bend freshman Kira Cook and Ginest-Dougherty battling it out. 

Great Bend took first in three events-scoring 469 points. The Buffs were second with 420 followed by Salina (354), Hutchinson (315), Dodge City (151), Campus (127), Hays (125), Liberal 112), Junction City (59) and Salina South (38)

Full Results: salina swim meet results 4-17-14

Garden City tennis 7th at McPherson

The Buffaloes tallied 18 points in a seventh-place finish Friday. McPherson won the tournament while Wichita Collegiate finished third.