Emmie Boese
Wellington High School has two male swimmers participating in the KSHSAA spring meet. However, there’s a catch. These two swimmers, Rome Hunt and sophomore Ralph Cornejo, compete for the Winfield Vikings because the Crusaders lack a men’s swim team.
The schools have a co-op and the boys are coached by Viking head coach Dustin Durbin. This past weekend, both Hunt and Cornejo competed with Winfield at the Wichita Heights Boys Invite. Twenty different high school teams competed in the meet.
Hunt placed twenty-fourth of 61 swimmers in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 59.48. In the 200m freestyle he placed twenty-first out of 36 swimmers with a time of 2:13.93. Hunt was also part of the Vikings 200 freestyle relay. He swam his leg of the relay in 26.25 seconds.
Cornejo swam the 200m freestyle and placed 19th out of 36 swimmers with a time of 2:12.34. He also competed in the 100m breaststroke and finished 30th out of 46 swimmers with a time of 1:22.75. Cornejo also competed in the 100m freestyle and finished in 1:04.94 and swam his 200m freestyle relay leg in 25.56 seconds.
Overall, Winfield ranked twelfth as a team and scored 68 points.
Hunt and Cornejo will both compete tomorrow at Haysville-Campus High School. They will compete at Emporia High School on Saturday at noon.
This is the first year that Wellington Boys swimmers have been able to compete at the high school level.
