Free State High junior Jordan Portela competes in the 200 yard freestyle event at the Sunflower League Boys Swimming and Diving Championships Saturday afternoon in Olathe.

Olathe ? It’s that time of the year again. Free State High junior swimmer Jordan Portela continued to prove he’s one of the best in the state with another historic day at the Sunflower League championships Saturday.

Portela won league titles in the 200 and 100 freestyles, breaking league-meet records in both events.

Along with Portela, junior Evan Yoder and sophomore Evan Eskilson won two races each, leading the Firebirds to second place in the league with 258 points at California Trail Middle School. Shawnee Mission East won its 13th straight league championship with 375 points.

Lawrence High finished third with 116 points, which LHS coach Kent McDonald believes is the school’s best finish since Lawrence split into a two-school town.

Portela’s big day started from disappointment. In the first event, Free State’s 200 medley relay team — Portela, Yoder, Eskilson and senior Carson Ziegler — was set to win by a few seconds, but was disqualified for a false start. The Firebirds lost the race and essentially squashed their chance at keeping up with SM East for a team championship.

Instead of dwelling on the DQ, Portela responded with a league record in the next event, the 200 free. Portela, a nine-time league champion, owns four of the league meet’s 11 swimming records.

In the 100 free, Portela broke the longest-held record in the league by 0.70 seconds.

“Honestly, we just had to look forward to our next event,” Portela said. “Yeah, we were kind of angry. But we just put all that built-up anger into our next race.”

Yoder added: “He’s just, like, insanely good. We all believed he could do it, but seeing him do it is really something special.”

Yoder won his first individual league titles in the 200 IM and 100 breast, and Eskilson won in the 100 fly and 100 back.

“Last year I got second in the 100 back and third in the 100 fly,” Eskilson said. “That was super fun as it was. This year coming back and being able to get first in both of my events is just unreal.”

Free State junior Chad Bourdon was third in the one-meter dive, junior Corey Schultz-Bever took fourth in the 100 back, and senior Ethan Kallenberger was fifth in the 100 fly and sixth in the 100 back.

Lawrence High was led by sophomore Stephen Johnson. He took third in the 200 free, swimming stroke-for-stroke with Portela in the first 100 yards. Johnson eventually lost pace in the final 100, but he was encouraged by his early speed.

But all of that speed came at a cost. He was drained physically, spending all of his energy trying to win and set a school record in the 200 free, despite the 500 free looming.

He looked depleted until he went back into the pool. Johnson recorded a season-best time in the 500 freestyle and took third place, holding off a swimmer from SM East with a strong finish.

“Painful is an understatement in this case,” Johnson said. “I jumped in and was like, ‘Oh my gosh, how am I going to do this?'”

After the 500 free, Johnson helped the Lions finish third in the 400 free relay and fourth in the 200 free relay, joining teammates Chase Odgers, Hunter Boehle, Patrick Oblon, Alex Heckman and Isaac Springe. Heckman was third in the 100 free and fifth in the 100 back. Springe added an eighth-place finish in the 200 IM.

“I was really worried. I didn’t think he had it in him to do what he did,” McDonald said of Johnson. “But he came back in the 500. He has a lot of pride and works really hard.”

“Everyone is pumped, already talking about state and what we’re going to do there,” McDonald added. “We really like that the two Lawrence schools went second and third. That’s a big deal, too.”

Sunflower League Meet

Saturday at Olathe

California Trail Middle School

Team scores: SM East 375, Free State 258, Lawrence 116, Olathe Northwest 110, SM South 100, Olathe North 98, Olathe East 97, Olathe South 90, SM North 75, SM West 36, Leavenworth 10, SM Northwest 9.

LHS and FSHS results

200 medley relay — 9. Alex Heckman, Isaac Springe, Chase Odgers, Patrick Oblon, L, 1:47.26; DQ. Evan Eskilson, Evan Yoder, Jordan Portela, Carson Ziegler, FS.

200 freestyle — 1. Jordan Portela, FS, 1:42.53; 3. Stephen Johnson, L, 1:46.00; 6. John Walpole, FS, 1:51.64; 13. Kyle Sadosky, FS, 1:55.50; 17. Bradley Collicott, FS, 2:04.47.

200 individual medley — 1. Evan Yoder, FS, 2:00.09; 8. Isaac Springe, L, 2:09.08; 9. Matthew Wilkus, FS, 2:11.66; 13. Jake Viscomi, FS, 2:16.53; 17. Benjamin Aldridge, FS, 2:29.64.

50 freestyle — 5. Carson Ziegler, FS, 23.05; 8. Brandon Bunting, FS, 23.48; 14. Patrick Oblon, L, 23.81; 18. Cameron Hodge, FS, 24.16.

One-meter diving — 3. Chad Bourdon, FS, 417.60; 7. Izaiah Bowie, L, 372.15; 11. Skylar Eklund, FS, 315.05.

100 butterfly — 1. Evan Eskilson, FS, 54.18; 5. Ethan Kallenberger, FS, 56.24; 11. Chase Odgers, L, 57.33; 12. Brett Carey, FS, 58.17; 15. Matthew Wilkus, 58.92.

100 freestyle — 1. Jordan Portela, FS, 46.23; 3. Alex Heckman, L, 49.47; 5. Carson Ziegler, FS, 51.68; 15. Kyle Sadosky, FS, 53.26; 17. Brandon Bunting, FS, 53.97.

500 freestyle — 3. Stephen Johnson, L, 4:50.53; 6. John Walpole, FS, 4:57.88; 8. Brett Carey, FS, 5:12.52; 9. Landon Sloan, FS, 5:18.48; 11. Isaac Springe, L, 5:23.97; 14. Chad Anderson, FS, 5:33.88.

200 freestyle relay — 3. Ethan Kallenberger, Brandon Bunting, John Walpole, Carson Ziegler, FS, 1:32.47; 4. Chase Odgers, Hunter Boehle, Patrick Oblon, Stephen Johnson, L, 1:34.57.

100 backstroke — 1. Evan Eskilson, FS, 53.60; 5. Alex Heckman, L, 58.97; 6. Ethan Kallenberger, FS, 59.92; 8. Jake Viscomi, FS, 1:00.23; 11. Landon Sloan, FS, 1:00.80.

100 breaststroke — 1. Evan Yoder, FS, 1:02.12; 4. Corey Schultz-Bever, FS, 1:04.62; 9. Sydney Lin, FS, 1:06.74.

400 freestyle relay — 2. Evan Eskilson, John Walpole, Evan Yoder, Jordan Portela, FS, 3:14.53; 3. Chase Odgers, Isaac Springe, Alex Heckman, Stephen Johnson, L, 3:22.84.