Lawrence High's Elle Weber competes in the fourth heat of the 200-yard individual medley at the Sunflower League meet. Weber qualified fifth in the event Friday at the Lawrence Indoor Aquatic Center.

Free State High's Chloe Portela pushes off the wall to start the backstroke leg of the 200-yard medley relay. Portela swam on the team that qualified third in the event Friday at the Sunflower League meet at the Lawrence Indoor Aquatic Center.

The formula for success was pretty clear during Friday’s Sunflower League preliminary girls swimming and diving meet at the Lawrence Indoor Aquatic Center: Place in the top six or bust.

“The worst thing you want to do today is finish seventh,” Lawrence High coach Kent McDonald said. “But the second six is better than nothing.”

Because of the prelim format, only the best six times for each event qualified for today’s championship finals of the league meet. Swimmers qualifying seventh through 12th advance to the consolation finals.

Fortunately for Lawrence’s and Free State’s swimmers, there were plenty of championship-qualifying times at Friday’s prelims.

The Firebirds placed in the top six in 10 events, while the Lions qualified six for the championship finals. The two teams also combined to place 11 swimmers in the consolation finals.

Leading the way were three first-place finishes for Free State at the 12-team meet. Freshman Chloe Portela was top qualifier in the 100-yard butterfly in 57.76 seconds, and junior Molly Albrecht topped the 100-yard back in 59.10. In the 200-yard free, sophomore sensation Morgan Flannigan blew away the field in 1:55.99, beating her nearest competitor by five seconds. Flannigan qualified for the finals in all four events she entered, including two relays and two individual events.

“In the 200 free, I was hoping to be first in it,” Flannigan said. “I kind of knew how I was placed. It’s going to be really good competition (today).”

Free State also got top-six qualifying swims from its 200 medley, 200 free and 400 free relay teams; Portela in the 50 free; and Albrecht, Flannigan and Kayla Hedges in the 500 free.

For LHS, the day got off to a rocky start when the Lions’ 200-yard medley relay team was disqualified for a false start. McDonald said it appeared to deflate his team.

“It was like kicking me in the stomach,” he said. “You can’t fault the swimmers because they want to get out there as fast as they can, and it just happened.”

Freshman Sarah Schwartz was on that medley relay team.

“We were really bummed about that,” Schwartz said. “Since we were all so mad, we were like, ‘We’re going to do good in everything else. It will be OK.'”

Schwartz did her part, coming back to swim her best time in the 100-yard backstroke and qualify third with a time of 1:02.70.

Other notable Lions finishes included sophomore Elle Weber, who qualified fifth in the 200 IM and 100-yard breaststroke. LHS also got fifth-place prelim finishes from Erina Houk in the 500 free and the 400-yard relay team.

The question for both squads afterward was: How does a team try to improve in less than 24 hours?

“What you do is your homework tonight,” Firebirds coach Annette McDonald said. “I’ll get a backup of the meet (times). I’ll score it out, and we’ll see if we can move up some places in certain events.”