There were multiple reasons why both Garden City and Great Bend came away from the 2023 Western Athletic Conference championship with positive feelings and outcomes.
The host Buffaloes captured the team championship despite winning just three of the 11 events, while it was Great Bend’s Ellis Long, a senior, who garnered the top individual award, being named Swimmer of the Year after winning two individual events and swimming a leg on two Panther winning relay teams.
Long led a strong contingent of Panther swimmers as they won eight of the 11 events to finish second to the Buffaloes in the team chase.
Garden City Head Coach Dan Delgado and Great Bend’s long had reason to smile at the end of their respective seasons.
For the Buffaloes’ team, winning the WAC became the No. 1 priority just shortly after the holiday break in early January.
“You never want to say that a coach doesn’t have any belief in his kids, but our reality was we didn’t have state caliber swimmers at the moment,” Delgado said. “It doesn’t mean that they can’t get there at some point, but we really had to begin to focus on the WAC as that seemed to be the most realistic goal for us as a team.”
This year’s team race was a mirror-image of the 2022 battle between the two schools with the final results just reversed. This time, the Buffaloes prevailed 401.5 to 352.5.
“They just had a little bit more depth in the events than we did and that was the difference,” Long said of the race to the top for the WAC crown. “We did all we could do to compete and that’s the best that you can do.”
Delgado said that once the decision was made to focus on WAC, he, his assistants and the swimmers themselves evaluated which events would be best for entries to give them the best opportunity to win the championship.
“We wanted to be WAC champions and the kids had to sacrifice some of their own personal goals to be able to do that,” Delgado said. “It was a collaboration of the kids to put us in position to win. We knew we had some kids who were really good in certain events, but to give us more point possibilities, we switched some of them to different events. It all worked out.”
Delgado had high praise for the selflessness of his swimmers.
“I can’t say enough about the boys,” Delgado said. “So many chose to do events to be WAC champs. Now that we have accomplished that, we need to focus on taking the next step and that is qualifying swimmers for state and I don’t necessarily mean consideration times. I want us to get the actual state qualifying time next year.”
Delgado said that it would take a different outlook for some of the younger swimmers if they want to move in that upward direction for success.
“First, we know it will take a lot of work, and that also means training during the available time we have over the winter break,” Delgado said. “I’m not sure we were ever quite as sharp as we were in late December.”
Second, Delgado said, the swimmers will need to get into the weight room to increase their strength and conditioning.
“We will need to have more buy-in from more boys to make that happen and I think some of the swimmers we have returning next year understand that,” Delgado said.
In his second season, Delgado said he was pleased to see the increase of student-athletes who participated, seeing the number grow form about a dozen or so in 2022 to 22 this season.
“We’ve got some of the boys now actively recruiting those others who are not playing basketball or wrestling in the winter months,” Delgado said. “That’s what we need to see more of.”
Delgado said that he could now look back and see the fruits of the efforts of those decisions in early January and how they had paid off in big dividends.
“The kids were so excited when we won,” Delgado said. “The seniors we had were great leaders and examples for the younger kids, but for us to get to the next level, we’ve got to pick up some dudes next year – some of our football players who don’t typically play a winter sport.”
For now, though, celebrating the WAC title was enough for the second-year Buffs’ coach.
“A little success can go a long way in building a program,” Delgado said. “We’ve taken that first step.”
Junior Kaleb Reagle was the ringleader for the Buffs as he claimed two individual golds in the 500-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke while also swimming a leg on the runner-up 200-yard medley and 200-yard freestyle relay teams.
Great Bend’s Long named Swimmer of the Year
The battle for the WAC Swimmer of the Year didn’t go any further than the lineup of the Great Bend Panthers.
No less than three of the Panther swimmers were in contention for the honor and it was senior Ellis Long who prevailed in a vote of the WAC coaches.
The competition was keen as Long and teammates Beau Burkhart and Kasey Kennedy each captured two individual gold medals while also swimming on a pair of winning relay teams.
“Any one of the three of us could have won the award,” said Long, who credited his teammates with making his senior year a memorable one. “It was a good season for me and I was able to win most of my individual races which made it a lot of fun.”
Long’s individual titles at the WAC came in the 200-yard freestyle and his specialty, the 100-yard breaststroke where he clocked a state qualifying time of 1:01.4. Teammates Kennedy (200-yard IM and 100-yard butterfly and Burkhart (50/100-yard freestyles) combined with Long to form three of the four legs of the winning 200-yard medley and 200-yard free relay events.
Long said that while he enjoyed the freestyle events, the breaststroke was easily his best event. And look no further than the Class 5-1A state meet where he clocked his personal best time of 1:00.60 and finished second, earning a silver medal in his final event at the high school level.
“It was a great feeling to know that I could compete with some of the best swimmers in Kansas,” Long said. “We don’t get to see that quality very often in our meets here in western Kansas.”
The intricacies of the event, Long said, require many, many hours over years to reach a high level of excellence.
“A lot goes into the event,” he said. “It’s a very technical stroke where you need a strong kick, but also have to combine moving your upper and lower body at different times. You have to keep the momentum going when you’re coming off the walls. You’re trying to produce power as much as you can, but it takes a tremendous amount of practice all the time.”
Long began swimming at the age of 8 at the encouragement of his parents in club swimming.
Now that his high school career has come to a close, Long doesn’t have current plans to swim at the next level. He will enroll at Kansas State University to pursue a degree in engineering. The only thing that might change? Possibly a one-year stop at Barton Community College, but he said that was a slim possibility.
“I’m definitely happy with what I’ve accomplished,” he said. “The WAC and state results were things that I have worked for over the years and it feels good to do that.”
2023 All-WAC Boys Swimming Team
| EVENT | SWIMMERS | SCHOOL |
|---|---|---|
| 200y IM Relay | Ty Boone Ellis Long Kasey Kennedy Beau Burkhart | Great Bend |
| 200y Freestyle | Ellis Long | Great Bend |
| 200y IM | Kasey Kennedy | Great Bend |
| 50y Freestyle | Beau Burkhart | Great Bend |
| 100y Butterfly | Kasey Kennedy | Great Bend |
| 100y Freestyle | Beau Burkhart | Great Bend |
| 500y Freestyle | Kaleb Reagle | Garden City |
| 200y Freestyle relay | Ellis Long Adam Hall Kasey Kennedy Beau Burkhart | Great Bend |
| 100y Backstroke | Kaleb Reagle | Garden City |
| 100y Breaststroke | Ellis Long | Great Bend |
| 400y Freestyle Relay | Josh Martinez Alan Roman Ethan Unger Evan Gurrola | Garden City |
WAC Swimmer of the Year – Ellis Long, Great Bend, Sr.
WAC Coach of the Year – Dan Delgado, Garden City
