On December 1st, the Emporia High Boy’s Swim and Dive team held both their first home meet which doubled as their first meet of the season. Emporia held 3 top 5 finishes in team events and 3 top 5 solo events.

   Divers took action early on in the meet, competing fiercely and producing phenomenal results. Braxton Higgins (12) placed first with a final score of 287.75 followed by third and fourth place going to Kager Ochs (11) and Allex Allemang (11) respectively. Higgins has also qualified for state making this his third appearance and hoping to defend his previous two individual champion titles. 

   Continuing to swim events, Rudy Bedolla (12) had the highest individual finish in the 50-yard freestyle event where he placed fifth. 

   In the 500 yard freestyle, Ian Navarro (11) had the highest Spartan finish in the individual event. “I feel that my 500 free was the most impressive since I was finally able to get my time under  7 minutes. I personally really enjoy getting to see my time decrease with the 500 free each time I do it,” said Navarro.

   As a team in the 200 yard freestyle relay, the Spartan team of Rudy Bedolla (12), Shane Anderson (11), William Walker (10), and Logan Woydziak (10) finished second in the event and was the highest finish for the Spartan team placements. 

   From a coaching standpoint, Jamie Dawson (head coach) thought highly of the team’s performance. “As a whole, our team performed above what we were expecting as we have many new and young swimmers who are still learning the techniques, meet protocols and other elements of the sport. Another major take away we had was how well some of our brand new swimmers are and how much they are going to contribute this season and in the future that we did not anticipate before,” said Dawson.

   Brayden Morgan (12) was also optimistic with his performance. “I personally think my best event last night was the medley relay because I had never swam in the medley relay as a backstroker and I definitely outperformed what I thought I could for my first time,” said Morgan.