Olathe ? With results like these, who needs practice?

Lawrence High divers John Gatti and Nick Leet might think practices are overrated following their 1-2 finish at the Sunflower League boys swimming and diving meet on Saturday at Chisholm Trail Junior High.

Lion swimmers and divers were unable to practice a couple of days last week when school was canceled because of an ice storm. LHS diving coach Ryan Adams, though, said if his two divers had more practice their scores could have been higher.

“I think we were particularly hurt because we couldn’t practice,” Adams said. “We were planning on working on some new dives.”

Gatti, a sophomore, had enough good dives in his repertoire. He won the diving competition with 441.60 points.

Leet, a ninth-grader at Southwest Junior High, finished second with 422.60 points after leading Gatti heading into the finals.

“I didn’t have as high as difficulty dives as John did,” said Leet, who’s been diving for five years.

Leet also doesn’t have the reputation of Gatti, third at state last year.

“I’m trying to get some recognition,” Leet said. “At the first of the year not too many coaches knew me.”

The two divers feed off each other in practice and meets.

“They kind of have a brotherly relationship,” Adams said. “John helps Nick and Nick helps John.”

The diving success plus senior John Armstrong’s victories in the 100 butterfly (55.03 seconds) and 100 freestyle (50.47) fueled the Lions to a third-place finish at league. LHS finished with 203 points. Shawnee Mission East (226) and Olathe East (221) placed 1-2.

Armstrong was the top seed in the 100 fly and No. 2 seed in the 100 free. He also joined Elliot Lauxman, Anthony Portela and Jon Legler on the winning 400 freestyle relay team that finished in 3:26.84.

“I wanted to win everything I could,” said Armstrong, the anchor on the relay. “It meant a lot to win the 100 fly and 100 free because they were back-to-back events. It was feat for me to win both and my times were good.”

The back-to-back wins in the 100 fly and 100 free didn’t go unnoticed.

“That’s about as impressive as you can get,” LHS coach Alicia Jackson said. “John kind of had a rough middle of the season and hadn’t swam like he anticipated. He swam really well today.”

Lawrence’s 400 freestyle relay team narrowly beat runner-up Olathe East by less than a second.

“They took off, did awesome and swam their hearts out,” Jackson said of her foursome.

The Lions’ other top placers were Legler, second in the 200 free (1:56.36) and Portela, third in the 100 free (51.60).

Free State, sixth with 112 points, was led by sophomore Alex Brunfeldt. He won the 500 freestyle in 4:56.75, nearly 13 seconds faster than the second-place finisher.

“I was pretty confident because I saw the heat sheet,” Brunfeldt said. “I haven’t tapered yet, so I hope state will be a lot faster.”

Chris Wolff was Free State’s other top-three finisher. He placed third in the 50 free (23.51).

“We have not competed against some of these teams before, so it was hard to gauge how we’d do,” FSHS coach Annette McDonald said. “I had a lot of PRs (personal records) and that means they’re swimming well.”

Next for the city swimmers and divers is the state meet on Feb. 15-16 at KSU Natatorium in Manhattan.

Team scores: Shawnee Mission East 226, Olathe East 221, Lawrence 203, SM Northwest 156, SM North 141, Free State 112, Olathe South 83, SM South 81, Olathe North 64, SM West 56, Leavenworth 46.

Individual Results

200 medley relay 1. SMNW, 1:47.31. 2. SMN, 1:47.86. 3. LHS (Elliot Lauxman, Anthony Portela, Jon Legler, John Armstrong), 1:48.50. 4. OE, 1:48.67. 5. SME, 1:49.24. 6. OS, 1:51.08. 7. SMS, 1:52.64. 8. FS (Chris Wolff, David Adams, Chris Sellon, Alex Brunfeldt), 1:54.44. 9. ON, 1:55.32. 10. SMW, 1:57.90. 11. Leav, 2:12.31.

200 freestyle 1. Kyle Anderson, SME, 1:56.32. 2. J. Legler, LHS, 1:56.36. 3. Andrew Ganss, OE, 1:56.49. 4. Matt Radtke, SME, 1:56.99. 5. Brent Brown, ON, 1:57.37. 6. Adams, FS, 1:57.56. 7. Parker Eshelman, SMNW, 1:58.20. 8. Isaac Bari, LHS, 2:00.36. 9. Joe Lawton, OS, 2:00.57. 10. Jessie Wright, SMS, 2:01.63. 11. Lauxman, LHS, 2:05.54. 12. Cameron Cederlind, SMNW, 2:05.87.

200 individual medley 1. Brandon Lee, OE, 2:00.91. 2. Steffen Mensching, SMNW, 2:06.99. 3. Bryan Sayler, SME, 2:09.10. 4. Brunfeldt, FS, 2:10.13. 5. Dustin Spieker, SMN, 2:10.24. 6. David Davidson, ON, 2:10.58. 7. Casey Styers, OS, 2:12.83. 8. Andy Ringwelski, SMS, 2:12.88. 9. Anton Warnick, SMNW, 2:14.45. 10. Sellon, FS, 2:15.57. 11. John Sabates, SME, 2:16.07. 12. Chris Blake, OS, 2:17.23.

50 freestyle 1. Pat Craven, OE, 23.29. 2. Bruce Campbell, SMN, 23.44. 3. Wolff, FS, 23.51. 4. Portela, LHS, 23.54. 5. Nick Jackson, SMW, 23.78. 6. Justin Schnegelberger, OE, 24.10. 7. Jeff Phelps, SMNW, 24.11. 8. Taylor Sloan, SME, 24.23. 9. Cuyler Halpin, LHS, 24.52. 10. Jerod Meagher, Leav, 24.53. 11. Ryan Holler, OE, 24.55. 12. Alex Haines, SMW, 24.56.

Diving 1. John Gatti, LHS, 441.60. 2. Nick Leet, LHS, 422.60. 3. Cole Young, SMW, 413.50. 4. Mike Young, SME, 384.85. 5. Jake Venable, SME, 337.20. 6. Brett Triola, OE, 329.70. 7. Ian Hutchinson, SME, 318.90. 8. Josh Moran, OE, 262.0. 9. Michael George, SMNW, 255.75. 10. Zach Steuterman, ON, 230.0. 11. Patrick Ward, SMW, 226.6. 12. Chris Myers, SMS, 221.35.

100 butterfly 1. Armstrong, LHS, 55.03. 2. Phelps, SMNW, 56.95. 3. Campbell, SMN, 58.30. 4. Peter Simonsen, SME, 58.53. 5. Matthew Dickson, SMN, 58.99. 6. Lawton, OS, 59.27. 7. Wolff, FS, 1:00.64. 8. Sabates, SME, 1:01.00. 9. Ryan Huntoon, Leav, 1:02.82. 10. Chris Wintergalen, OE, 1:03.47. 11. Phillip Wrigley, LHS, 1:05.63. 12. David Szczucinski, SME, 1:06.23.

100 freestyle 1. Armstrong, LHS, 50.47. 2. Mensching, SMNW, 51.06. 3. Portela, LHS, 51.60. 4. Anderson, SME, 51.82. 5. Matt Radtke, SME, 52.54. 6. Andrew Ganss, OE, 52.63. 7. Nick Jackson, SMW, 53.02. 8. Sloan, SME, 53.50. 9. Warnick, SMNW, 53.59. 10. Pat Craven, OE, 54.03. 11. Meagher, Leav, 54.89. 12. Holler, OE, 54.93.

500 freestyle 1. Brunfeldt, FS, 4:56.75. 2. Cameron McKay, OE, 5:09.57. 3. Dustin Spieker, SMN, 5:11.61. 4. Styers, OS, 5:16.50. 5. Adams, FS, 5:19.21. 6. Bari, LHS, 5:23.54. 7. Brent Brown, ON, 5:26.15. 8. Parker Eshelman, SMNW, 5:31.34. 9. J. Legler, LHS, 5:37.07. 10. Scott Rose, Leav, 5:37.97. 11. Josh Laaser, OE, 5:49.52. 12. Seth Alford, FS, 5:57.34.

200 freestyle relay 1. OE, 1:33.44. 2. SMN, 1:35.15. 3. SME, 1:35.44. 4. SMNW, 1:39.32. 5. Leav, 1:40.08. 6. SMS, 1:40.40. 7. SMW, 1:41.05. 7. SMW, 1:41.05. 8. LHS (Halpin, Bari, Eric Kawahigashi, Wrigley), 1:43.86. 9. ON, 1:43.86. 10. FS (Bret Robinson, Justin Stein, Brian Sears, Brent Crouse), 1:47.48. 11. OS, 1:47.82.

100 backstroke 1. Sayler, SME, 57.30. 2. Davidson, ON, 57.39. 3. Schnegelberger, OE, 57.97. 4. McKay, OE, 59.34. 5. Andy Ringwelski, SMS, 59.91. 6. Ben Myers, SMS, 1:00.92. 7. Lauxman, LHS, 1:03.16. 8. Brian Benge, SME, 1:04.05. 9. Reuben Dermyer, OS, 1:05.86. 10. Nam Pham, SME, 1:07.62. 11. Danny Arland, SMN, 1:09.88. 12. Brett Goodwin, SME, 1:10.31.

100 breaststroke 1. Brandon Lee, OE, 1:02.91. 2. Tyler Fox, SMS, 1:07.04. 3. Russell Madsen, SMN, 1:07.17. 4. Chris Blake, OS, 1:08.23. 5. Josh Bayless, SME, 1:08.64. 6. Jeremy Ubben, SMNW, 1:08.82. 7. Ian Legler, LHS, 1:10.28. 8. Austin Winter, SME, 1:10.79. 9. Crouse, FS, 1:11.05. 10. Sellon, FS, 1:11.30. 11. Sean McHenry, OE, 1:11.51. 12. Robert Fowler, SME, 1:12.10.

400 freestyle relay 1. LHS (Lauxman, Portela, J. Legler, Armstrong), 3:26.84. 2. OE, 3:27.43. 4. SMNW, 3:31.74. 5. FS (Wolff, Adams, Sellon, Brunfeldt), 3:38.31. 6. SMN, 3:38.70. 7. OS, 3:39.13. 8. Leav, 3:39.60. 9. SMS, 3:41.15. 10. ON, 3:48.22. 11. SMW, 4:45.75.