Alex Brunfeldt doesn’t look like much.

The gangly Free State High junior with skinny legs and self-described “lanky arms” doesn’t have much muscle definition, and his hips are starting to show love-handles like a lazy college sophomore might have.

It just goes to show how deceiving looks can be. After all, who does look good in a swimsuit?

Besides, the way Brunfeldt swims, it doesn’t matter what he looks like.

He now owns or shares four Firebird swimming records, all of which were set last Thursday at the five-team meet at FSHS. Brunfeldt inched past Joey Van Saun’s 200-meter freestyle record and destroyed Sean Gallagher’s 500 free mark by 21 seconds.

Throw in records for the 200 medley relay and 400 free relay — set with Anthony Portella, Chris Sellon and Chris Wolff, fellow Lawrence Aquahawks and no slouches themselves; Portella broke Brunfeldt’s 100 butterfly mark — and Brunfeldt had quite a day.

And that’s just for starters.

Those four swimmers just joined the Firebird swim team, missing the first three meets this season to complete their year with the Aquahawks, Lawrence’s club swimming team.

Like tennis players or golfers, the best swimmers practice year-round, which means lots of time in the pool, going back and forth, breathing, counting strokes and pausing for air. Sincd swimming is harder than running or hooping, swimmers are certainly made of sterner stuff than most.

Which means Brunfeldt must be tougher than most.

Or maybe he’s just nuts.

Brunfeldt is in the pool 18 hours a week, swimming Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, every day after school and Saturday mornings.

I’d consider myself lucky I didn’t drown with that much time in the water. But it’s second nature to Brunfeldt, who’s been doing this since he was in eighth grade.

It’s funny, too. He didn’t know he’d be this good — who would excel like him besides a person born with webbed feet? — because swimming became a necessity.

Too much TV turned him into, well, something he didn’t want to be.

“I was really out of shape and needed something to do,” he said.

Brunfeldt joined the Aquahawks and didn’t exactly make a splash. He had to put in his pool time first, then he blossomed. Turns out those lanky arms, long legs and huge hands are natural propellers.

“I started out in the short events because I wasn’t quite in shape yet,” he said. “But one day my coach put me in a longer event to see how I’d do.”

He has been swimming ever since and probably will spend the rest of this season and next making his mark in the FSHS record books.

Those longer events? He owns them.

“Actually, I don’t mind it,” he said of the 500 and 200. “I just keep telling myself it’s almost over.”

So, yes, the kid is nuts. But maybe that’s what makes him excel. Great long distance runners do the same thing, ignoring pain or tiredness to keep pushing.

Well, not that nuts. He knows when to say when. That ridiculous practice schedule? Brunfeldt does have one day he stays on dry land.

“If they told me to swim on Sunday, I’d probably take it off anyway,” he said.

A day off? Huh, maybe he’s not that much different than the rest of us. After all, this close to the holidays, nobody looks good in a swimsuit.