photo by: Shane Jackson

Lawrence High swimmers walk back to the gymnasium with their masks on during Free State's triangular Wednesday afternoon at the Lawrence Indoor Aquatic Center on March 17, 2021.

Despite not having a large contingent of qualifiers, the Free State and Lawrence High girls swim squads are aiming for high finishes at the Class 6A state tournament on Friday at the Capitol Federal Natatorium in Topeka.

Each team is sending 10 athletes to this year’s state meet. The Lions, who are the defending champs after winning the state title in 2019, are sending eight swimmers and two divers; for the Firebirds, it’s nine swimmers and one diver.

It’s going to be a tall task for the Lions to defend their crown with only ten athletes. But they have their sights set on trying to finish in the top three.

“We just don’t have the numbers this year, and I think we are all aware of that,” senior Aubrey Fischer said. “If it is possible, we are going to go for it.”

I don’t think anyone is going to set the bar low,” she added. “I think we are all going to go for the highest we can go.”

The Firebirds, who are coming off a third-place finish at the Sunflower League meet, are shooting for a top-five finish to end the 2021 campaign.

“I think we have gotten so much better, especially at league,” FSHS junior Abbey Hossler said. “I don’t think we had very high expectations. But we ended up getting third overall, and that was a really great feeling. I think it shows how much potential we have.”

Friday’s event will be a single-day competition with timed finals for swimming. The meet begins with diving preliminaries and semifinals at 9:30 a.m. Swimming and diving finals will start at 3:45 p.m.

• • •

At the beginning of this season, the Lions didn’t even know what their expectations should be.

Like all spring sports athletes, the swimmers had missed the 2020 season entirely because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and they started 2021 with only five athletes who placed at the state meet during their undefeated championship season in 2019.

This year’s squad didn’t go undefeated, but it came pretty close.

LHS started the season off with a runner-up finish in the opening meet, but the Lions then rattled off several wins in a row. They finished as runners-up at the Sunflower League meet two weeks ago and won five of the 12 events there.

“We didn’t know how good we would do after we had our undefeated sophomore year,” senior Madi Heckman said. “We lost our first meet and our last meet. Everything else in between we won. That’s when we were like, ‘Hey, we are pretty good.'”

For that, the Lions credit their chemistry. They’re always pushing each other during practice, and they care a lot more about how the team fares than about their individual accomplishments.

Take Fischer, for instance. She set two program records at league — a 57.49 in the 100 butterfly and a 59.35 in the 100 backstroke — and she enters the state meet seeded in the top four in both. But she hopes her teammates can do better than that.

“I’m really happy to see my name up there,” Fischer said of the records. “I hope someone next year will be able to break them. I think records are awesome to get, but I don’t want them to stay up there too long.”

One swimmer who hopes to set some new records at state is Heckman. In the final meet of her high school career, she is aiming to take down the record in the 50 freestyle, which is a 24.61. As a sophomore, Heckman posted a time of 24.64 at the 2019 state meet.

Heckman is seeded third in the 50 freestyle and the 100 freestyle, one of many LHS standouts to enter with high seed times. Lawrence is also seeded third in all three relay races.

Junior Carmen Braden has the top seed time in the 200 freestyle — 1:58.52. She is also seeded second in the 500 freestyle. She’s grown a lot as an athlete since her freshman year, when she finished outside the top 10 in both events at state.

“I am just surprised,” Braden said. “I just work hard in practice every day. If I don’t have a good practice in the morning, I usually come back in the afternoon.”

• • •

Plenty of Free State swimmers are also entering the state meet with high expectations.

In her first season at this level, sophomore Lolly Hindman is seeded second in the 100 butterfly with a time of 56.90. She is also seeded third in the 100 backstroke with a 58.38.

“My mindset is to put it all out there,” Hindman said. “I’m really hoping to win. If I don’t, I’m still going to be a great sport about it. But I’m going to leave it all in the water and hopefully bring it home.”

Freshman Liza Engelbrecht is competing in the same two events as Hindman. She is the No. 4 seed in the 100 butterfly and the No. 8 seed in the 100 backstroke, and she hopes to place in both.

“I would like to place top eight in the 100 back and top five in the 100 fly,” Engelbrecht said. “Having a positive mindset (is the key) and making sure all my teammates are there to support me.”

The Firebirds have supported and challenged each other all year. They have fun racing against their teammates, and even when they’re competing against one another at meets, they celebrate one another’s successes.

“We race in practice,” Hindman said. “We hype each other up all the time. We have a really great social structure. I think that support and cheering are really what helps.”

Free State is also seeded fourth in the 200-yard medley relay and 400 freestyle relay.

photo by: Courtesy photo

All 10 state qualifiers of Free State’s girls swim and dive team pose for a photo following a recent practice at the Lawrence Indoor Aquatic Center. The Firebirds will be in action at the state meet on Friday, May 21 at the Capitol Federal Natatorium in Topeka.