Swimmers line up for the 50-yard freestyle at the Sunflower League Meet. Free State junior Reilley Moore finished second with a time of 21.28 seconds.

Almost immediately after collecting his second-place medal for the 50-yard freestyle, Free State junior Reilley Moore had to quickly return to the pool for the 100-yard freestyle.

“There’s a break in between the 50 and the 100, so I had time,” Moore said. “But I had to run over — because I didn’t even have my cap on. I barely got anything on. It takes a little focus away, but I’m overall happy that I could (still do well).”

Moore finished with four medals on the day — including a league championship in the 100-yard freestyle.

“It’s fun getting a good placing at league,” Moore said. “It’s like one of our big high school meets so it’s nice to be able to do well and have my teammates do well also, because I know a lot of them dropped times. So I love seeing them be happy.”

Free State finished fourth as a team (216 points) at the Sunflower League Swim and Dive Meet on Saturday. Lawrence High also competed at the meet, finishing eighth as a team with 136.5 points.

Moore finished third in the 200-yard medley relay (1:39.09), second in the 50-yard freestyle (21.28), first in the 100-yard butterfly (49.79) and third in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:29.68).

Right after the 50-yard freestyle — a race Moore said he’s been experimenting with this season — Moore had a brief break before the 100-yard freestyle. However, Moore said he was still nervous before his league championship-winning race.

“So I just tried to relax as much as possible,” Moore said. “I kind of had some things in order so I could get there with as much ease (as possible). It didn’t go off getting there exactly as I planned, but during the race I felt good.”

While Moore was one of the busier swimmers at the league meet, LHS junior Tyler Jones also had a consistent back-and-forth day between the podium and the pool. Jones had to jump from the 500-yard freestyle to the 200-yard freestyle relay.

“I feel like with the 500, I kind of learned to use that mentally as a warmup,” Jones said. “Like, of course I’m going to be tired. But I see it as a warmup going into my (200) freestyle relay and then going from that to the 400 freestyle. That’s like building up speed for (those relays).”

Jones finished fourth in the 200-yard freestyle (1:51.33), fifth in the 500-yard freestyle (5:05.85), eighth in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:35.00) and sixth in the 400-yard freestyle relay (3:32.76).

While he was impressed with his time in the 500-yard freestyle — he didn’t expect to get below a 5:10 — Jones said his biggest boost of confidence came from his 200-yard freestyle time; his previous best in the race was 1:55.

“That’s a huge drop,” Jones said. “Even dropping half a second is huge, but dropping three or four seconds is big for me.”

Moving forward, both Jones and Moore said the focus is on state and pushing themselves to improve over the coming weeks.

“I think just being able to stay prepared for state and keep the team motivated (is important),” Moore said. “And having fun is most important, so just creating a good environment for the team so we can set ourselves up for success later on.”

Team Results