Lawrence High's Jack Ryan stays ahead in his heat of the 200-yard freestyle as the Lions hosted a triangular on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2014, at LHS.

Nothing against Lawrence High senior swimmer John Eakes, but as classmate Caleb Axlund watched him swim the 200 IM Tuesday at the Lions’ home triangular, Axlund wasn’t convinced Eakes had a first-place finish in him this time.

“I didn’t think he was gonna win it,” Axlund said, with a chuckle, “but he came in through on the breast stroke and was able to pull through with the win.”

Eakes couldn’t take it personally, though.

“I didn’t think I was gonna win it, either,” he admitted after LHS finished second at the tri, to winner Shawnee Mission South. “But I did. So it was pretty great.”

After racing to a second-place finish in the 100 breast and contributing to Lawrence’s win in the 200 medley relay (1:53.77), with fellow seniors Axlund, Tim Schraad and Darren Rawlings, Eakes said an in-race blunder nearly cost him in the 200 IM (2:25.89).

“I was doing my freestyle turn on the far end and I just kind of looked over, which you’re really not supposed to do,” Eakes said. “I saw the guy was catching up, so I just went as hard as I could, no matter how much it hurt. I just did that ’til the end.”

The miscue didn’t cost him this time, and Eakes recovered to beat Olathe Northwest’s Sam Silvers by 0.71 seconds. LHS coach Kent McDonald said all of the Lions could learn a valuable lesson from the situation.

“One of the things we really work on is trying not to breathe coming off the turn. When you push off, that’s the fastest you’re going in the race, and you turn your head to breathe and it blocks all that water and stops you in the water,” the coach explained. “When you’re racing with someone and they don’t do it, you can really see the difference.”

Lawrence’s other individual first-place finish came in the 100 fly, courtesy of Schraad’s 1:01.72 showing. Eakes called the race one of the highlights of the day.

“Him and the other swimmer (Olathe Northwest’s Patrick Hobach) were pretty much neck-and-neck until the last 25 (yards) or so,” Eakes said, “and then Tim just pulls ahead and wins it (by more than two seconds).”

McDonald said he sees continued improvement from LHS, which holds state consideration times in both the 200 medley relay and 200 free relay (second place, 1:40.09, by Axlund, Schraad, sophomore Chase Odgers and Rawlings) and shed some seconds on its season-bests in both races.

“Every meet we have a lot of people dropping times,” the coach said, “and getting faster.”

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Results

Tuesday at LHS

Team standings: 1. Shawnee Mission South 265; 2. Lawrence, 210; 3. Olathe Northwest, 168.

LHS results

200 medley relay — 1. Caleb Axlund, John Eakes, Tim Schraad, Darren Rawlings, 1:53.77; 5. Alex Smith-Gauna, Kiefer Stellwagon, Chase Odgers, Drake Truscello, 2:-2.77; 7. Patrick Oblon, Clayton Pfeifer, Elliott Abromeit, Ian Hierl, 2:14.25.

200 free — 3. Tristan Hantula, 2:16.06; 5. Jack Ryan, 2:21.53; 8. Andy Freeman, 2:38.31.

200 IM — 1. Eakes, 2:25.89; 5. Abromeit, 2:54.89.

50 free — 2. Rawlings, 25.45; 4. Truscello, 27.20; 7. Caelan Golledge, 27.51; 9. Ellis Springe, 28.00; 10. Hunter Boehle, 28.15; 13. Chanse Bowie, 28.64; 18. Stefan Petrovic, 28.95; 19. Matt Ramaley, 29.12; 21. Jared Miller, 29.74; 24. Noah Kucza, 30.47; 26. Raymond Faith, 31.14; 27. Moritz Konrad, 31.84; 30. Josh Axlund, 32.31; 32. Keegan Matheis, 32.70; 34. Nathan Pederson, 34.06.

1-meter diving — 6. Izaiah Bowie, 154.40; 8. Trysten Dahozy, 122.90; 10. Zach Bowie, 89.70; 11. Daniel Pauls, 86.60.

100 fly — 1. Schraad, 1:01.72; 3. Odgers, 1:04.68.

100 free — 5. Oblon, 1:00.53; 6. Boehle, 1:02.65; 11. Ramaley, 1:05.28; 12. Petrovic, 1:05.55; 13. Miller, 1:05.62; 14. Abromeit, 1:05.67; 15. Kucza, 1:06.38; 16. C. Bowie, 1:06.46; 17. Freeman, 1:06.97; 18. Hierl, 1:08.24; 19. Springe, 1:08.28; 20. Faith, 1:10.19; 21. Konrad, 1:11.49; 25. Pederson, 1:16.52.

500 free — 4. Hantula, 6:20.53; 6. Ryan, 6:25.50; 8. Clayton Pfeifer, 6:33.41; 10. Stellwagon, 6:40.34.

200 free relay — 2. C. Axlund, Schraad, Odgers, Rawlings, 1:40.09; 3. Truscello, Springe, Eakes, Golledge, 1:49.68; 7. Ramaley, Petrovic, Boehle, Freeman, 1:53.14; 9. Abromeit, Hierl, Faith, C. Bowie, 1:58.76; 12. Kucza, Miller, Konrad, Pederson, 2:05.82.

100 back — 2. C. Axlund, 1:02.87; 5. Oblon, 1:13.17; 9. J. Axlund, 1:30.21.

100 breast — 2. Eakes, 1:16.64; 4. Stellwagon, 1:17.82; 9. Golledge, 1:24.73; Pfeifer, 1:27.14.

400 free relay — 2. C. Axlund, Rawlings, Schraad, Odgers, 3:52.86; 5. Truscello, Hantula, Smith-Gauna, Oblon, 4:15.14; 6. Freeman, Ryan, Ramaley, Boehle, 4:18.98.