Olathe ? All things considered, Lawrence High girls’ swimmer Julie Szabo had a fantastic first day at the Sunflower League Championships.

Thursday, Szabo was crouched in the basement of her home near Southwest Junior High while a fierce tornado ripped through her neighborhood, causing serious damage just a few houses away from hers.

Less than 24 hours later, Szabo was one of the city’s brightest stars at Chisholm Trail Junior High in Olathe, qualifying for the finals in two individual events and two relays.

“I was pretty traumatized,” Szabo said of Thursday’s twister. “I didn’t get very much sleep, but I felt better this morning. After a day of school, you feel more normal.”

Apparently, lack of sleep has little effect on her performance in the pool. Szabo posted a personal-best time of 2:26.32 in the 200 individual medley, and then tied a personal best with a 1:03.50 in the 100 butterfly. She also was part of the 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle relay teams that will swim in today’s finals.

“She got up and really raced today,” LHS coach Ryan Adams said. “I was really excited about that, because obviously she’s got lots on her mind.”

The Lions qualified a total of seven individuals for today’s finals, several of them in more than one event. Despite the strong showing, LHS may have been the tough-luck loser as well. Four times, Lions swimmers missed the top 12 by one place, including Axah McCalla pulling off the feat twice.

Free State High's Ashley Robinson finished first during her heat of the 100-yard butterfly. She was one of the five Firebirds who qualified Friday for today's finals in the Sunflower League swimming meet at Olathe.

“We win for having the most girls in 13th place,” Adams quipped. “That’s a bummer deal.”

Free State High, meanwhile, qualified five individuals and the 200 medley relay for today’s finals. Ashley Jackson, Ashley Robinson and Julie McGinn all qualified in multiple events, with Jackson finishing first in both the 200 freestyle and the 500 freestyle.

Overall, it was a somewhat disappointing for Firebirds coach Jama Crady, who still saw signs of fatigue in her squad after noticing the problem at a dual Monday.

“We didn’t swim that well,” Crady said. “We had several people qualify, but we had a relay that got disqualified. We didn’t qualify for state in the areas I thought we would.”

After Day One, the clear favorites to win the team are Olathe East and Shawnee Mission East, who had multiple qualifiers in nearly each of the 12 events Friday. The first finals race starts at 1 p.m. today at Chisholm.