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HUTCH TEAM’S SEASON GOING SWIMMINGLY

As the Hutchinson High girls swim practice wrapped up this week, a Katy Perry song piped out of the speakers at the YMCA pool. Many of the Salthawks sang along. Coach Rene’ Sullivan cringed and joked that her girls were off key and needed to desperately practice their vocals. Early in the season, these meaningless issues seem to be the only thing Sullivan can complain about. After an outstanding opening meet in Salina last week, the Salthawks are way ahead of their usual pace. Back in the day, Sullivan faced problems such as getting enough girls to try out. Now, she stresses about which events her girls will compete in at state because they are likely to qualify in too many. “A lot of enthusiasm with the newer girls coming in and the older girls,” Sullivan said. “Just a lot of motivation among themselves as far as a team.” At Salina, the 200-medley relay squad of junior Madelyn Fee, sophomore Toni Lehr and freshmen Emily Hendricks and Lonna Porter posted a time of 2:02.66. It was nearly 9 seconds faster than the state automatic qualifying standard. The same foursome also punched a ticket to state in in the 200 freestyle relay and smashed the automatic time by almost 5 seconds. After just the first meet of the year, the group is already targeting school records as a season goal. The marks are well within reach. Additionally, Lehr hit automatic times in both the 100 butterfly and the 100 breaststroke. Fee and Porter hit consideration times in events and Hendricks just narrowly missed in two races as well. Again, Sullivan notes this is just the first event of the season, and for Hendricks and Porter, the first of their careers. Right now, she said she still is trying to pinpoint Porter’s ideal event. It’s tricky because she’s so versatile. “She’s good at distance (and) she’s good at different strokes,” Sullivan said. Besides these four, Sullivan is amazed with the progress her entire team has shown so far. For example, sophomore Tyler Christian had never swam the 500 freestyle before Salina. She somehow still posted a solid time. “When she finished the race, she just jumped out of the pool,” Sullivan said. “I said, ‘Aren’t you tired?’ She said yeah. But she finished her race and popped right out of the pool.” Sullivan and the Salthawks are excited about their next meet at Great Bend on Monday. Sh rewarded her girls’ hard work and let them play the light-hearted “Sharks and Minnows” game at a recent practice. “It (the game) really builds the team and togetherness, which is really good this year,” Sullivan said. “All of the girls are supporting each other. My problem is going to be figuring out what relays and individual races they can do because they can only do two relays and two individual events.”

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