Although the Lawrence Aquahawks had just one individual winner at the first day of the Roger Hill Invitational Swim Meet on Friday, head coach Brian Barnes was pretty pleased with the team’s performance.

“I thought we had excellent 800s, and our 400s were pretty good, too,” Barnes said. “We didn’t have any individual standouts, but we’re making progress and improving.”

The Lawrence Aquahawks' Reese Grabill finishes the 50-meter breaststroke. Grabill placed fifth in 59.85 seconds in the 8-under girls race during the Roger Hill Invitational Swim Meet on Friday at Lawrence Indoor Aquatic Center at Free State High.

Rebecca Ball won the girls 13-14 400 free in a time of 4:04.54, beating her nearest competitor by more than 40 seconds.

Katie Swank finished third in the race in 4:48.83, just more than two seconds behind the Kansas City Blazers’ Rachel Musser, who was in the lane next to Swank.

“You notice her a lot,” Swank said of swimming next to the leader of her heat. “It really helps because if it’s somebody across the pool you can’t see her.”

Swank has been swimming with assistant coach Mike Soderling for three years after her mom a former high school swimmer steered her toward the sport. Swank said she also was helped by swimming at home at the aquatic center, in its second year as the site of the invitational.

“It’s great,” she said, “especially with the new facility because it’s not in the heat. Swimming at home is fun because you know everybody and you can have more fun here.”

The Aquahawks had three of the top four finishers in the boys senior 800 free, two of whom recorded personal-best times Alex Brunfeldt was second in 9:07.71 and Anthony Portela finished fourth in 9:13.90. Jonathan Schmidt, whose specialty is the butterfly, finished third in 9:12.81, and Chris Sellon’s personal-best of 9:37.62 was good enough for 12th.

The Kansas University swimmers didn’t fare as well, as Beth Schryer and Kristen Johnson couldn’t live up to their seedings in the girls senior 800 free.

Johnson, seeded fourth, placed 17th in a time of 9:49.36, and third-seeded Schryer finished 26th in 10:05.87.

KU assistant coach Eric Eikenbary said he wasn’t focusing on the results much, though.

“We’re not really putting a huge stress on competitions this summer,” he said. “The most important thing is that we’re just getting in some real good training and we’re doing a lot of aerobics fitness training. We’re practicing from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. each morning and then three afternoons a week we have doubles available. So most of the girls are swimming once a day and sometimes twice a day, and they all lift.”

Like Swank, Eikenbary was a fan of the invitational’s site.

“It’s so nice that this meet is here in Lawrence,” he said, “because we don’t have to worry about hotel costs and we don’t have to worry about travel costs. The Aquahawks put on such a quality meet that we know we’re going to be racing against some fast girls.”

Although most of those girls still are in high school, Eikenbary said he planned on doing little recruiting at the meet.

“I’m just kind of watching the times and watching the girls,” he said. “If there’s someone who really interests me I’ll probably talk to their coach. A lot of times it’s the younger kids that you just kind of write down and put in the filing cabinet for a couple years from now.

“It’s just being involved in the area, knowing the coaches and seeing what’s coming over the next few years and trying to keep on top of it.”

Recent Lawrence High graduate Andrea Hemphill placed seventh in the girls senior 800 free, finishing in a time of 9:29.68.