The week in sports: Swimming, wrestling and bowling (Jan 4-6)

Abby McCoy, Sports editor

Photo from Pexels.com.

The boys swim team competed in two meets this week, placing 1st with 295 points at the Newton Invite on Thursday.

200 medley relay: 1st Jacob Ruder, Christian Taylor and Rielly Bannon. 200 freestyle: 2nd Nolan Palmer, 3rd Jacob Ruder and 4th Britton Beggs. 200 IM: 1st Christian Taylor. 50 free: 2nd Bryce Nelson. 100 butterfly: 4th Jacob Ruder. 100 freestyle: 1st Bryce Nelson. 500 freestyle: 2nd Britton Beggs. 200 freestyle relay: 1st Bryce Nelson, Rielly Bannon, Jacob Ruder and Christian Taylor. 100 breaststroke: 1st Christian Taylor and 4th Jacob Ruder. 400 freestyle relay: 3rd Nolan Palmer, Britton Beggs, Gabe Ruder and Bryce Nelson.

The swim team was back in action again for another meet in El Dorado on Saturday. Maize placed 2nd overall, falling to McPherson. Maize South, Rose Hill, Trinity Academy and others attended the meet.

Junior Nolan Palmer said having 2 swim meets within days of each other was a challenge for the boys due to the lack of recovery time and preparation for the 2nd meet. Palmer said the team was tired but still fought hard.

“Our guys are working hard in practice and are getting much better in meets,” Palmer said. “Almost all of them are dropping time. So we’re going to keep the hard work and our times will definitely be there.”

The swim team will be back in action on Thursday at Southwestern College.

Wrestling took 2nd overall as a team against Andale, Heights, Eisenhower and others at home on Saturday. Maize obtained 275.5 points, falling 6.5 points behind Dodge City.

106: 3rd Junior Camacho. 120: 2nd Justin Watkins. 126: 2nd Cayden Hughbanks. 132: 1st Aidan Campbell. 138: 3rd Jose Ledesma. 152: 1st Duwayne Villalpondo. 170: 1st Talon Fitzmier. 182: 1st Kyle Haas. 220: 1st Jacob Quiggle.

Freshmen Cayden Hughbanks and Kyle Haas said that in the future, the team hopes to increase indivual scores to place higher overall.

“We need to score more team points,” Haas said. “Our team plans on getting better by just practicing hard in the practice room.”

Wrestling will travel Newton for a tournament on Friday and Saturday.

Maize bowling teams competed at West Acres on Saturday in their first tournament of the season. The boys team placed 9th and the girls team placed 7th. 28 teams attended the tournament.

Sophomore Grayson Graham said that the team’s camaraderie was a strength that the boys played to on Saturday.

“We are very comfortable as a team and trust one another to help,” Graham said. “If one of our teammates gets down on themselves or isn’t bowling very well, our team can fall into getting down. But we usually push through it and help each other out.”

Bowling will face Eisenhower and Hutch on Tuesday at West Acres, and on Thursday and Friday compete in the West Acres Cup. The boys team will bowl Thursday and the girls on Friday.

This upcoming week, the boys (4-2) and girls (5-1) basketball teams will be back in action for the first time after winter break. They will travel to Hutchison on Tuesday, play at home against Salina Central on Friday and attend the AVCTL-GWAL Challenge on Saturday. Girls play at 11:45 a.m. and the boys play at 5:00 p.m at Koch Arena.