Topeka ? It has to be almost amazing that Lawrence High’s Meredith and Mallory West have not whacked each other at least once this season.

Not only are the two sisters, but they’re competing every day against each other in the pool.

“She hasn’t even dunked me once,” said a smiling Mallory, “but if I win today, I’d let her throw me in with all my clothes on.”

A victory for the freshman in the one-meter diving portion of this weekend’s state swim meet at the Hummer Sports Complex Natatorium isn’t out of the question, either.

She currently sits in second place with 193.70 points after Friday’s preliminary round. Mallory trails only Shawnee Mission West junior Laura Quenette by a little more than four points.

Plus, the phenom, who holds the school record for diving with 425 points, already has showed she’s not afraid of big-time pressure because she won the state all-around gymnastics title last fall.

And, of course, big sister will be watching from the sideline.

“I think she definitely can come in top five, maybe even win it,” said Meredith, a junior who just missed the cut for today’s semifinals, which will start at 10 a.m. The swimming finals are set to begin at 12:30 p.m.

Meredith said while on the surface few have seen the siblings fight, she admitted they occasionally suffer a spat or two at home. But this weekend, Meredith said she is just trying to be as supportive as her younger sister wants her to be.

“I just try to gauge how she is doing and then either pump her up if I need to or kind of let her cool off,” Meredith said.

That trait is not lost on LHS coach Ryan Adams.

“They’re really good together. They really support each other in all aspects,” he said. “They’re around each other a lot but they do really seem to enjoy each other’s company.”

While Lawrence was pretty lucky in both diving and swimming in the first day of the state meet, Free State, for the most part, probably wishes it could forget Friday’s preliminaries.

“Well, it ended about the same way it started,” said disappointed FSHS coach Jama Crady, whose Firebirds did not advance a single relay team into the finals. “We were really sluggish from the start.”

Indeed the Firebirds’ 200-yard medley team set the slow tone when they finished 24th with a time of 2:05.92.

But things were even worse for the Firebirds’ two other relay teams – which finished second a year ago to Wichita Trinity Academy in both the 200- and 400-yard freestyle relays.

While the Firebirds’ 200 team did make it into the consolation round with a 10th-place clocking in 1:45.43, the 400 team of Ashley Jackson, Kelsi Mishler, Sarah Clark and Ashley Robinson did not even qualify for either finals or consolations as they were disqualified because of a miscue on one of their hand-offs.

“I’m pretty disappointed,” Crady said. “But at least both of the Ashleys had good afternoons.”

The two Free State standouts gave their coach at least a couple of reasons not to be crabby about today’s finals because both of Crady’s past state champions were as good as advertised.

Jackson the lone Free State senior swam her way to a third-place showing in the 500 free, finishing in 5:11.20. Her good friend Robinson paced the preliminary with a time of 5:02.10, about six seconds quicker than Blue Valley North’s Kendall Matous.

Jackson, who as a sophomore snagged the 200-yard freestyle crown, finished sixth with a time of 1:57.71, two seconds behind Derby freshman Lisa Lunkenheimer, who topped the event.

Robinson, a three-time state champ who won both the 500- and 100-yard butterfly titles last year, finished third in that event nearly three seconds behind Blue Valley North’s Aubry Ashton.

“I’m pretty pleased with the preliminaries,” Robinson said. “I would like nothing more than to win both again, but the Blue Valley girl (Aubry competed at the Olympic trials and won two USA crowns last year) is very talented, and that’s is going to be quite the task to top her.”

Unlike Free State’s unsuccessful relay squads, Lawrence High enjoyed split success.

The Lions 200-yard medley relay team – Hannah Buchner, Julia Szabo, Kristi Rudman and Melissa Little – barely made it into the consolation finals when they took 16th with a time 2:02.22. However, the LHS 400-relay team just missed qualifying when it snagged the 17th spot in 3:59.55.

Little qualified 14th in the 500 free and 15th in the 200 free, while Szabo finished 14th in the 100 fly.

“I’m pretty excited about how we performed today,” Adams said. “I think both seniors Melissa Little and Julia Szabo really stepped it up today and gave us a lot of energy.”