Topeka ? Chelsea Dirks-Ham picked up the 100-yard butterfly only a year-and-a-half ago.

Free State's Katie Sloan competes in the 100-yard butterfly. Sloan, along with Lawrence High's Chelsea Dirks-Ham, qualified for today's finals.

Fast forward to 2007. The Lawrence High senior swimmer now is one of eight finalists in the 100 butterfly in the girls state meet at Hummer Sports Park.

“I hated fly when I was little,” Dirks-Ham said. “I would cry if I had to swim it, and it was not a very good experience. Now it’s what I do. It’s hard, but it’s a good kind of pain because you know you’re getting better.”

Friday represented the preliminaries of the state meet. The top eight swimmers of the preliminaries in each event will compete in the finals, which begin at 12:30 p.m. today.

Dirks-Ham qualified sixth in the butterfly prelims with a time of 1 minute, .16 seconds.

Dirks-Ham was the only LHS swimmer to qualify for the finals today. Free State will have six finals entrants today.

Even though she’s in the finals, Dirks-Ham seemed somewhat disappointed after Day One.

“I would have rather seen myself closer to my best time, regardless of what place that got me,” Dirks-Ham said of her season-best time of 58.59. “But I have a shot to do it again tomorrow, so that’s all I could ask for right now.”

Lawrence coach Kent McDonald said Dirks-Ham swam a bit slower than usual for the first 50 yards. Dirks-Ham prolongs her time underwater after leaving the blocks and typically takes her first breath ahead of the competition. She will swim against Free State junior Katie Sloan today in the finals. Sloan finished fifth in the prelims with a time of 1:00.03.

“I’d like to see her win it, but the top girls are going to be really tough,” McDonald said about Dirks-Ham. “I just want her to swim her best. You can’t tell what the other people are going to do. This will be her last meet, and I really want her to end it well.”

Free State freshman Morgan Flannigan registered the city’s best qualifying time. Flannigan finished the 500 freestyle in 5:09.19 to place second heading into today’s finals.

As is understandable for a freshman, Flannigan said she was nervous the week before state. One could barely notice such nerves once the bell sounded for the swimmers to jump off the blocks. Flannigan nearly beat her season-best time in the event by a minute.

“My adrenaline was pumping,” Flannigan said. “In bigger meets, I get more excited and pumped. All that stuff gets me really focused.”

To put Flannigan’s focus into perspective, she said she didn’t even hear the crowd noise during competition. A few hundred parents, friends and fans took up every inch of the bleachers to the right of the pool. In addition, coaches and teammates surrounded the pool, instructing and cheering on their swimmers. Once events started and finished, cheers and screams reverberated throughout the building.

“I don’t even think about it anymore,” Flannigan said. “It just kind of happens. For some reason, I can’t hear them when I’m swimming.”

Flannigan also qualified for the finals of the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:56.64, good for fifth.

The Firebirds’ 200-yard medley relay team – Flannigan, Sloan, Katie Swank and Heather Clark – qualified in fourth.

“They feel really comfortable with relay exchanges,” Free State coach Annette McDonald said. “They really encourage each other. That will be instrumental in having them stick together as a team and go fast. We had to get in the Top 8 to compete (today), and that was the key.”

The Firebirds’ 200 free relay team, which had the same swimmers as the medley team, qualified in sixth. Clark qualified in eighth in the 200 individual medley.