When Chad Bourdon joined Free State High’s boys swimming and diving team as a freshman, all he wanted to do was earn a varsity letter.

Fast forward to his senior season and Bourdon has his eyes on winning titles.

The first step is trying to win his first Sunflower League crown. Free State and Lawrence High will compete at the league meet, beginning with prelims at 5 p.m. today at the Indoor Aquatic Center.

Bourdon has won each meet that he’s entered this year. He missed the beginning of the season because of surgery on his hip and wrist, which left visible scars, from an old gymnastics injury.

“Honestly, my freshman year I didn’t even think that I was going to go to state and then I made finals,” Bourdon said. “Last year was kind of like a dream for me. I wanted top five and then I placed third. I was like, ‘OK, I really am going to push through next year and see if I can win.'”

Along with his title goals, Bourdon wants to break the school diving record. It’s the oldest record in the program, set in 1999 by Joseph Charles (461.65 points). Bourdon was about 30 points short last weekend.

“I got my (personal-record) at league last season, so I think that I can do it,” Bourdon said.

As a team, the Firebirds have finished second at the league meet for the past two seasons. The hardest part is keeping up with the depth of two-time defending state champion Shawnee Mission East.

“We’re just excited to have the boys swim at their home turf,” McDonald said. “I think they are excited about being the host of that and showing how much they’ve worked and how much time they can drop.”

Lawrence High senior Jakob Busch didn’t swim his freshman year and joined the team “out of spite” of his friends who were swimming and to stay in shape.

He started in the slowest practice lane during his sophomore year and eventually worked his way to a state-qualifying time this season. It’ll be his first time competing at the varsity league meet.

“It’s pretty awesome that after three years of swimming competitively that I can make it to state,” Busch said. “It opens up other doors that shows it’s possible to do things even if you haven’t done them before and you can still be good at them.”

Lawrence placed third at the league meet last season, but will have an uphill climb to reach that mark this year.

“Of course, we’d like to do that, but realistically we lost a lot of points and we haven’t got them back,” LHS coach Kent McDonald said. “Stephen (Johnson) should do really well. Alex (Heckman) should do really well. Two of our relays should do really well.”