By RANDY GONZALES

rgonzales@dailynews.net

The Indians surprised even their first-year head coach.

After getting 12 qualifiers for state last season, Hays High School boys' swimming coach Ann Adams thought several Indians could return to state this year.

"I had made what I thought kind of a gutsy prediction at the beginning of the season, based on what I saw last year, when I was the assistant coach," Adams said. "They really outdid all of my expectations, because we have all three relays qualified for state, and we have Derek Drees qualified in two events -- the 50 free and 100 butterfly. We have Blake Mathews qualified in the 200 free, and we have Trever Rohn qualified in the 50 free."

Adams isn't through making predictions for the Class 5-4-3-2-1A State Championships, Friday and Saturday in Topeka.

"My prediction is we will have people going on into the finals on Saturday," Adams said.

HHS will have seniors Trever Rohn and Nathan Adams and juniors Connor Hess and Derek Drees in the 200 IM relay at state. Qualified in the 200-yard freestyle relay were Adams, Hess, junior Blake Mathews and senior Torrey Contrerez. Qualifying in the 400 free relay were Drees, Mathews, Hess and Rohn.

Senior Nick Nolte will be an alternate in the medley relay and also in the 400 free relay. Junior Spencer Greathouse will be an alternate in the 200 free relay, while senior Dallas Kaiser will be an alternate in the 400 free relay. Other alternates in the medley relay are senior Kevin Rivera and junior Steven Vancil.

In individual events, Drees will swim the 50 free and 100 butterfly; Adams will be in the 200 IM and 100 breaststroke; Mathews will be in the 200 free and 100 free; Rohn will be in the 50 free and 100 free; and Hess will be in the 100 backstroke.

"You got to admire the work ethic of Trever Rohn, Nathan Adams -- the seniors, even if they're not competing at state, they're alternates," Adams said. "They really provide a lot of heart and soul to the team."