photo by: Chance Parker

Free State senior Finn VanDyke and Lawrence senior Trenton Snyder converse after completing their race during the Boys LHS vs. Free State Dual Thursday, Dec. 10.

Free State’s boys swim and dive team won eight of the 12 events on its way to a 106-79 win over Lawrence High Thursday at LHS.

The final score might have seemed like another ho-hum victory for the Firebirds, but it was anything but that. With it only being a two-team competition, both squads had very little rest between events and it took a lot out of every athlete from both programs.

“It was a lot faster than our usual meets and not as much rest between races,” said FSHS senior Riley Sirimongkhon-Dyck, who claimed two individual victories in the 100 butterfly with a time of 56.22 and the 100 breaststroke with a mark of 1:05.80.

“I’m really proud of my teammates, because I see some real improvement from them,” Sirimongkhon-Dyck added.

Perhaps the most-improved Firebird was senior Finn VanDyke, who won two of his own individual races. He won the 200 freestyle and the 100 freestyle to claim a pair of first-place finishes as an individual.

VanDyke was also on the winning 200-yard medley relay team along with Sirimongkhon-Dyck, junior Max Bates and freshman Dawson Bonnell. VanDyke, Sirimongkhon-Dyck, Bates and junior Alexander Moore made up the winning 200 freestyle relay squad.

“I think we did great,” VanDyke said. “Considering the fact that I did so much better than the last meet, I feel like so many of the other swimmers did so much better than last week. I would say that this was a great step forward.”

Perhaps the highlight of VanDyke’s performance came in his narrow victory during the 100 freestyle.

VanDyke, who came in with a seed time of 52.86 seconds, clocked a mark of 50.85 to win the 100 freestyle. It was enough to edge out Lawrence sophomore Maximilian Whittaker in the most-competitive race of the day.

Whittaker, who had a seed time of 51.00 entering the event, finished as the runner-up with a time of 50.94. VanDyke admitted that he is good friends with Whittaker, but was determined to be victorious in the friendly competition.

“That was my goal,” VanDyke said of defeating Whittaker. “I feel like having someone there, being neck-and-neck with someone, was a good motivator. It was probably what carried me through the race.”

The tightly-contested race got a nice round of applause from swimmers on both teams, but it also demonstrated how unique the swim meet was in general.

Since LHS will not be allowing spectators until Dec. 14, there was nobody in attendance other than the two programs and Midco Sports Network, who was broadcasting the event live. Had there been fans, it was a race that almost certainly would have warranted a big roar from the crowd.

“If there were people here, the atmosphere would have been so much different,” VanDyke said.

But both teams have navigated through all the challenges of competing during a pandemic, as was the case throughout Thursday’s meet. Masks were worn at all times when athletes weren’t in the pool. Both teams were socially distanced as much as possible.

It all led to a smooth meet, other than the fact there was little rest between events. FSHS won the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:49.36, while placing first in the 200 freestyle relay with a mark of 1:36.94.

Lawrence’s 400-yard freestyle relay team — sophomore Chrisopher Oral, sophomore Giuliano Lule-Paredes, senior Andrew Augustine and Whittaker — won the 400-yard freestyle relay with a time of 3:44.06.

Bonnell clinched first in the 200 IM for FSHS with a time of 2:15.10. Sophomore Elliott Ahlvers won the diving competition with a total score of 273.70 points, which was 63 points better than the runner-up.

For the Lions, Oral notched first in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 24.04. Giuliano Lule-Paredes placed first in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:01.25. Senior Trenton Snyder took the top spot in the 500 freestyle with a time of 5:50.08.

Snyder actually crushed his seed time by 14 seconds for a personal-best mark, though he still believed that he could do better.

“I could have been a little faster,” Snyder said. “I was trying to save myself because I had four events and I was trying to save my energy to do well in each one of those events.”

Snyder said that the Lions had a hard practice on Wednesday to get in better shape, which proved to pay dividends in the challenging meet. While it is still early in the season, it was a strong showing for a LHS team that has aspirations of qualifying for the state meet.

“I feel like we are doing very well,” Snyder said. “We don’t have many swimmers, but the swimmers we do have are doing very well.”

LHS will be back in action in a triangular at the Shawnee Mission Aquatic Center on Tuesday.

Lawrence’s crosstown foe, Free State, also believes it is trending in the right direction after winning Thursday’s meet.

“I think we have few diamonds in the rough,” Sirimongkhon-Dyck said. “They just need to be trained a little harder and specify which stroke they are doing.”

Free State will return to action on Thursday in a meet at the Prairie Trail Middle School.

“I feel like we are getting off the ground and we are pointed upwards,” VanDyke said.

Lawrence vs. Free State dual

Thursday at LHS

Free State 106, Lawrence 79

200 yard-medley relay: 1. Free State (Max Bates, Riley Sirimongkhon-Dyck, Dawson Bonnell, Finn VanDyke) 1:49.36; 2. Lawrence (Giuliano Lule-Paredes, Jack Tell, Ryan Christian, Maximilian Whittaker) 1:52.67.

200 freestyle: 1. Finn VanDyke, FS, 1:56.26; 2. Trenton Snyder, LHS, 2:03.49; 3. Gabe Clark, FS, 2:25.79; 4. Jack Keathley-Helms, FS, 2:31.10; 5. Carson Schraad, LHS, 2:41.50; 6. Adam Stoddard, LHS, 2:55.60.

200 IM: 1. Dawson Bonnell, FS, 2:15.10; 2. Ryan Christian, LHS, 2:21.43; 3. Alexander Moore, FS, 2:23.57; 4. Max Bates, FS, 2:29.34; 5. Jack Tell, LHS, 2:31.18.

50 freestyle: 1. Christopher Oral, LHS, 24.04; 2. Andrew Augustine, LHS, 25.73; 3. Jackson Waggoner, FS, 28.01; 4. Owen Polson, FS, 28.43; 5. Jackson Rea, FS, 28.66; 6. Cole Grassy, FS, 29.64.

Diving: 1. Elliott Ahlvers, FS, 273.70; 2. Salvador Good, LHS, 210.65; 3. Keyan Crawford, LHS, 203.00; 4. Michael Leonard, FS, 170.05; 5. Jack Keathley-Helms, FS, 130.80.

100 butterfly: 1. Riley Sirimongkhon-Dyck, FS, 56.22; 2. Dawson Bonnell, FS, 1:00.49; 3. Ryan Christian, LHS, 1:00.84; 4. Giuliano Lule-Paredes, LHS, 1:04.17; 5. Jacob Heinz, FS, 1:04.40; 6. Quinn Pleskac, LHS, 1:08.14.

100 freestyle: 1. Finn VanDyke, FS, 50.85; 2. Maximilian Whittaker, LHS, 50.94; 3. Christopher Oral, LHS, 54.52; 4. Giovani Lule-Paredes, LHS, 58.63; 5. Jackson Waggoner, FS, 1:02.99; 6. Jamie King, FS, 1:05.46.

500 freestyle: 1. Trenton Snyder, LHS, 5:50.08; 2. Jacob Heinz, FS, 6:04.09; 3. Noah Mast, FS, 6:11.39; 4. Gabe Clark, FS, 6:23.81.

200 freestyle relay: 1. Free State (Finn VanDyke, Alexander Moore, Max Bates, Riley Sirimongkhon-Dyck) 1:36.94; 2. Lawrence (Christopher Oral, Trenton Snyder, Ryan Christian, Maximilian Whittaker) 1:39.09.

100 backstroke: 1. Giuliano Lule-Paredes, LHS, 1:01.25; 2. Max Bates, FS, 1:05.00; 3. Alexander Moore, FS, 1:07.06; 4. Noah Mast, FS, 1:10.82; 5. Andrew Augustine, LHS, 1:18.67.

100 breaststroke: 1. Riley Sirimongkhon-Dyck, FS, 1:05.80; 2. Jack Tell, LHS, 1:15.57; 3. Giovani Lule-Paredes, LHS, 1:17.15; 4. Owen Polson, FS, 1:24.03; 5. Cole Grassy, FS, 1:28.90.

400 freestyle relay: 1. Lawrence (Chrisopher Oral, Giuliano Lule-Paredes, Andrew Augustine, Maximilian Whittaker) 3:44.06; 2. Free State (Dawson Bonnell, Jacob Heinz, Gabe Clark, Alexander Moore) 4:00.36.