It took some extra time for Free State High senior Lucy Sirimongkhon-Dyck to sign her letter of intent on Thursday afternoon. Writing out a long last name is a small price to pay to complete a dream of swimming in college.

Sirimongkhon-Dyck signed with the University of Nebraska-Omaha during a signing ceremony in the Free State library.

“I’m very excited,” Sirimongkhon-Dyck said. “It’s crazy that’s already time for me to being going to college and I’m really glad that I’m going to get to compete and be swimming.”

Sirimongkhon-Dyck, a member of Ad Astra Area Aquatics of Lawrence since she was 8 years old, was given the club’s Teammate of the Year award at a banquet last week.

She’s been swimming with the Firebirds since her sophomore year and finished in seventh place in the 100-yard backstroke and eighth in the 200-yard individual medley at the Class 6A state tournament last spring. She also was on Free State’s state champion 400-yard freestyle relay team.

“I was looking at some other schools like up north and (Nebraska-Omaha) was just on the way,” said Sirimongkhon-Dyck, a captain of Free State’s girls swimming and diving team. “My club coach set it up and he told me to go look there. I visited and really liked it, so I just decided that would be a good place for me, and it’s close to home.”

The Firebirds and Sirimongkhon-Dyck swim in the Sunflower League championships, starting 5 p.m. today at Mission Trail Middle School in Olathe.