Lawrence High's long jumper Kyleigh Severa stretches out a leap during Tuesday's Lawrence High track meet against Free State at LHS.

It was the second time in five days that Lawrence and Free State high schools competed at the same meet. This time, it was just against each other.

Pitted in a dual on Tuesday afternoon at Lawrence High, the Lions girls topped the Firebirds, 76-75, while the FSHS boys beat LHS, 82-67. Though Lawrence’s girls were thrilled with the victory over the defending Class 6A state champions, they were also quick to downplay it.

“It’s a good practice but Free State is going to be a radically different team later in May than they are now,” LHS coach Jack Hood said. “In this meet, they’ve got 5 to 20 points that didn’t compete and at least another 5 to 10 in injured kids.”

“But it was a good practice for our kids,” Hood added. “Our kids did a lot better than they did last week and if track is anything, it’s a progression; you try to get better every week. I think our kids took a good step forward. We’ll see if we can build on the momentum.”

The Lions girls had strong performances from Caitlin Broadwell in the triple jump, Rebecca Finley in the shot put and Marlee Bird in the javelin, all improved from top-three finishes in the seven-team Free State Invitational last Friday. LHS junior Jensen Edwards, who didn’t participate last week, took second place in the 100-meter dash and edged Free State junior Laura Kennard by 0.01 seconds to win the 200-meters.

“You don’t really expect to get first because it’s (my) first meet of the year,” Edwards said. “But it sets the pace for the rest of the year.”

On the boys side, LHS junior Dearion Cooper took first place in the 300-meter hurdles, improving his time from last Friday to 43.30 seconds.

“It’s really surprising, honestly,” said Cooper, who also won the 110-meter hurdles. “I didn’t really think I was going to be doing that well at the beginning of the season. I was glad I could get back to my times with such little working out that I have had.”

Cooper fell at the regional finals last year in the 300 hurdles, costing him a potential spot in the state tournament. Since then, he’s become a more aggressive hurdler.

“It’s a good feeling to be able to do well and succeed the way I have been this year,” he said. “I’m just hoping it just keeps going.”

Free State freshman Emily Venters put up a strong time in the two-mile, while junior Gabbi Dabney improved on her 100-meter hurdles time from last week. The boys also had some standout showings with freshman Avin Lane winning the 100-meter dash (11.38) and sophomore Tanner Hockenbury taking first in the two-mile race (10:09.95).

“We had a lot of kids today that were pretty fried and pretty beat up after Friday’s meet, but I really thought that we saw some really good improvement from some of the kids that kind of had a struggling meet on Friday,” FSHS coach Jordan Rose said. “We saw some of them step up today a little in this smaller venue and I think that was really nice. Then we still had some pretty standout performances from the kids, too, so that was pretty exciting as well.”

Both teams will wait until April 11 for their next meet. The Lions will race in the Topeka Relays and the Firebirds will travel to the Blue Valley Relays.

Free State at Lawrence High dual

Tuesday at Lawrence High

Top-three finishers

Girls

100 — 1. Laura Kennard, FS, 13.63; 2. Jensen Edwards, LHS, 13.85; 3. Myah Yoder, LHS, 13.96.

200 — 1. Edwards, LHS, 27.67; 2. Kennard, FS, 27.68; 3. Marissa Pope, LHS, 27.95.

400 — 1. Kyleigh Severa, LHS, 1:03.99; 2. Marilee Neutel, FS, 1:07.67; 3. Grey Leslie, LHS, 1:11.36.

800 — 1. Bailey Sullivan, FS, 2:29.8; 2. Claire Sanner, FS, 2:35.7; 3. Cienna Sorell, LHS, 2:39.90.

1600 — 1. Sanner, FS, 5:36.75; 2. Sullivan, FS, 5:38.78; 3. Molly McCord, FS, 5:40.87.

3200 — 1. Emily Venters, FS, 11:08.50; 2. Shaye White, LHS, 14:25.29; 3. Mikayla Herschell, LHS, 15:08.43.

100 hurdles — 1. Gabbi Dabney, FS, 15.70; 2. Kiara Clark, FS, 16.04; 3. Katie Lomshek, LHS, 17.94.

300 hurdles — 1. Clark, FS, 49.30; 2. Hailey Belcher, LHS, 51.30; 3. Dabney, FS, 53.70.

Long jump — 1. Severa, LHS, 15-3.25; 2. Caitlin Broadwell, LHS, 14-8; 3. Caroline Dykes, LHS, 13-8.5.

Triple jump — 1. Broadwell, LHS, 33-7.25; 2. Bri Martin, FS, 29-8.25; 3. Alex Ewy, LHS, 26-10.

Shot put — 1. Rebecca Finley, LHS, 36-2; 2. Matia Finley, LHS, 35-4; 3. Hannah Shoemaker, FS, 32-9.5.

Discus — 1. R. Finley, LHS, 132-4.5; 2. M. Finley, LHS, 131-1; 3. Shoemaker, FS, 98-4.

Javelin — 1. Marlee Bird, LHS, 104-8; 2. Lomshek, LHS, 99-5; 3. Shoemaker, FS, 98-1.

Pole Vault — 1. Callie Hicks, FS; 2. Kennedy Dold, LHS; 3. Alyssa Hicks, FS.

Boys

100 — 1. Avin Lane, FS, 11.38; 2. J.D. Woods, LHS, 11.51; 3. Isaac King, FS, 11.64.

200 — 1. Lane, FS, 23.64; 2. Woods, LHS, 23.67; 3. Tyler O’Dell, FS, 24.10.

400 — 1. Elijah Harvey, FS, 54.47; 2. Nichalus Williams, FS, 58.33; 3. Josh Waisner, FS, 1:01.32.

800 — 1. Stan Skwarlo, FS, 2:05.5; 2. Ryan Liston, FS, 2:11.2; 3. Thomas Becker, FS, 2:13.9.

1600 — 1. Skwarlo, FS, 4:38.69; 2. Liston, FS, 4:45.34; 3. Becker, FS, 4:52.60.

3200 — 1. Tanner Hockenbury, FS, 10:09.95; 2. Keegan Matheis, LHS, 11:20.23.

110 hurdles — 1. Dearion Cooper, LHS; 2. Rueben Wesley, FS; 3. Tre Moore, LHS, 17.19.

300 hurdles — 1. Cooper, LHS, 43.30; 2. Moore, LHS, 44.40; 3. Zach Sanders, LHS, 44.90.

Pole vault — 1. Trevor Hillis, FS; 2. Morgan Sisson, LHS; 3. Sean McCoy, LHS

Long jump — 1. Tae Shorter, LHS, 20-0.5; 2. Erik Parrish, LHS, 18-2.25; 3. Taylor Krejci, FS, 17-2.

Triple jump — 1. Parrish, LHS, 40-11; 2. Shorter, LHS, 40-9.75; 3. Azariah LeBrun, FS, 36-11.5.

Discus — 1. Nicholas Hocking, FS, 139-2; Alex Jones, LHS, 114-6.5; 3. Jose Rodriguez, LHS, 104-9.

Shot put — 1. Jones, LHS, 42-9; 2. Hocking, FS, 41-0.5; 3. Trey Georgie, LHS, 38-1.

Javelin — 1. Lucas Werner, FS, 155-4; 2. Sam Fanshier, FS, 133-1; 3. Josue Lorenzo, LHS, 130-7.