Free State High won the boys state swimming championship in 2004. The Firebirds will find out today how good they can be in 2005 — weather permitting.

FSHS was short-handed in its first three meets while seniors Anthony Portela, Chris Sellon, Nathan Schriner and sophomore Chase Torgerson competed with the Lawrence Aquahawks club team. Free State coach Annette McDonald expects her team to be at full strength for the first time this season today when the Firebirds travel across town for a 3:30 p.m. meet at Lawrence High.

Lawrence schools canceled classes today because of the weather, but LHS athletic director Ron Commons said the meet would go on if possible.

“Our hope is that by 2 or 3 in the afternoon the temperatures will rise a little, and the road conditions will be better,” Commons said Wednesday night. “That’s our hope. We’ll make a decision tomorrow.”

The field also includes Leavenworth, Shawnee Mission North and Missouri power Rockhurst.

“It’s going to be a very exciting meet,” McDonald said. “We’re going to go head-to-head with some very good teams.”

Free State didn’t practice Tuesday or Wednesday because of icy weather.

“It’ll be a fast meet,” McDonald said. “The guys will be rested.”

Lawrence High and Free State teams are allowed to compete in previously scheduled events, but can’t practice, if school is canceled because of weather.

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Striking out: Poor weather conditions Tuesday and Wednesday delayed Free State’s bowling tryouts. Free State coach Chuck Tracy originally planned to have 47 boys each bowl three games Tuesday and have 20 finalists come back today to Royal Crest Lanes for three more games before cutting his roster to 13.

Tracy had rescheduled the first round of boys tryouts for today and moved Wednesday’s girls tryouts to Friday, but yet another school closing today wiped out the coach’s Plan B.

The Firebirds might be forced to have both boys and girls tryouts during the weekend.

“We’re not going to have tryouts tomorrow,” Tracy said Wednesday night. “We’ll see what the bowling center says. If not Friday and Saturday, we’ll push it back to next week. It’s a good thing we pushed our start date back. We’ll be flexible and see what happens.”

Free State originally was scheduled to open the season against Olathe South on Jan. 11 at Royal Crest Lanes, but the Kansas State High School Activities Assn. — which approved the sport for the first time this year — moved the proposed state championship date back from Feb. 26 to March 5.

Rather than have down time at the end of the season, schools pushed back the start of the season. FSHS now will open with O-South Jan. 20 at Royal Crest.

Lawrence High, which had its tryouts last month, will open Jan. 20 at Olathe Northwest.

FSHS has 15 girls signed up for tryouts, and Tracy plans to keep 13 — six varsity, six junior varsity and one alternate.

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Winter wait: Winter break lasted longer than expected for the Veritas boys basketball team. The Eagles’ home game Tuesday against Topeka Cair Paravel was postponed because of bad weather, and no makeup date had been set Wednesday. Veritas’ game Friday at Olathe Christian has been rescheduled to Feb. 19th because of a scheduling conflict.

The Eagles don’t have another game until Tuesday’s contest at Eagle Heights Christian in Kansas City, Mo.