Free State High’s boys swimming and diving team is less than a week away from its season-opening meet, the FSHS quadrangular on Wednesday.


There’s plenty of reasons for the Firebirds to be excited about the upcoming year. Sophomore Jordan Portela won state titles in the 200 freestyle and 100 butterfly, while senior Josh Terrell (200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke) and senior Jack Ziegler (50 freestyle) finished in the top-10 of their events at state.

So the talent is there (though the boys that swim on club teams won’t start practicing and competing with the team until January). They took third in the Sunflower League and fifth at state last year, and have a solid chance to improve those finishes.


The big key will how much they can speed up from last season and lower their times throughout the year. We’ll begin to find that out next week.


I shot some video of their practice on Tuesday as they did laps and worked on their starts, which can be seen below:


http://www2.ljworld.com/videos/2014/nov/27/36013/
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Some quick notes on some former Free State athletes:


•Kennedy Kirkpatrick has averaged 4.3 minutes per night through three games for Bowling Green University’s women’s basketball team. She’s still searching for her first basket of the season but has recorded an assist and steal.

•Missouri State swimmer Canaan Campbell took 11th in the 200 backstroke and 14th in the 400 IM at the Louisville Invitational last weekend.


•University of Texas heptathlete Alexa Harmon-Thomas was mentioned in a video by Texas track and field assistant coach Ty Sevin, who focuses on the field events. You can view the video here: http://youtu.be/S8kZ0W2RWFI
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