Free State senior swimmers Anthony Portela and Chris Sellon may have provided two of the day’s biggest individual highlights, but Shawnee Mission East took the leap into the pool, coach included, after winning the Sunflower League swimming championship Saturday.

The Firebirds, who were gunning for the top team spot with SM East and Olathe East heading into the final day of competition at the Lawrence Indoor Aquatic Center, stumbled into third place.

Lawrence High, which set a goal of placing ninth, finished eighth.

“We’re a little disappointed. But we swam well, and the competition is what it’s about,” Free State coach Annette McDonald said. “I expected (the seniors) to win all of their events, but that’s not what happened for whatever reason.”

Portela made several league coaches’ jaws drop in the final of the 100 butterfly, where his first-place time of 51.79 seconds set a league record and gave him the victory by more than four seconds.

The high point of Sellon’s afternoon came in the 500 freestyle. He was the only swimmer all weekend to crack the five-minute mark, winning the race by 10 seconds over LHS freshman Alex Boyer.

Boyer’s impressive performance in the meet’s most endurance-based race was the highest individual finish for the Lions. LHS senior Nick Leet took third in one-meter diving.

“I was pretty excited because I was second seed coming into the meet to start with,” Boyer said. “It’s not really a rivalry, because (Sellon) will beat me every day. It’s pretty cool, and we’re getting along really well, considering he’s a senior, and I’m a freshman.”

Even though the Firebirds claimed the top spot in four of the meet’s 12 events, there was no slowing SM East. The Lancers’ 302 total points earned first place by 75 points over Olathe East (227) and 114 ahead of Free State (188).

Free State High's Chris Sellon swims the 500-yard freestyle at the Sunflower League meet. Sellon won the event, but the Firebirds placed third in the team standings Saturday at the Lawrence Indoor Aquatic Center.

Along the way to their second consecutive league title, SM East swimmers set four league records. The star of the weekend was sophomore Luke Tanner, who set two of those records in the 200 and 100 free and was part of the relay teams that set new marks in the 200 and 400 free. In the 200 individual free, Tanner’s time of 1:43.98 beat Portela, the top qualifier, by two seconds and snapped a league record that had stood since 1991.

McDonald summed up Free State’s disappointment with her body language. She shook her head as the Lancers stepped to the podium to accept their trophy, filled the natatorium with cheers and hopped into the water.

Lawrence High coach Ryan Adams cheers on Lions swimmer Alex Boyer. The Lions placed eighth in the team standings.

Saturday’s tumble could be extra motivation for the state meet that begins Feb. 18 in Manhattan.

“I don’t think we expected some of the teams to do as well as they did,” Portela said. “Even if we had the guys we had last year, I don’t think we would have placed much better. We may have got second, but not first. There’s no way.

“I think this is kind of a wake-up call.”