photo by: Courtesy Janna Skinner

Free State's boys swim team poses in front of the school before competing at the Sunflower League Championships in Shawnee from Friday, February 7 to Saturday, February 8.

Free State’s boys swim team finished fourth in the Sunflower League Championships at the Shawnee-Mission School District Aquatic Center with 224 points, while the Lawrence team placed ninth with 131 points.

Free State’s 200-yard medley relay team placed seventh at 1 minute, 45.22 seconds. Junior Ewan Campbell, senior Ari Mattes, sophomore Sebastian Iversen and sophomore Anderson Bateman made up the team. The Lawrence team finished 10th at 1:47.08 with senior Ike Adams, junior Hugo Cowardin, junior Alex Oral and senior Ryan Lane.

In the 200-yard freestyle relay, the Firebirds finished fifth at 1:32.50 with Bateman, Mattes, junior Owen Carnagey and senior Jack Kempf. The Lions were 13th with senior Thomas Basham, freshman Thurston Saint Onge, junior Aiden Bierschbach and sophomore Lawson Donly. Free State also finished fifth in the final relay, the 400-yard freestyle. Bateman, Iversen, Kempf and Carnagey swam it in 3:24.44. Lawrence paced eighth in the 400-yard relay at 3:32.65. Cowardin, Adams, Oral and Lane made up the LHS team.

Two Firebirds placed in the diving event. Freshman Gavin McIntosh took fifth with 373.40 points. Sophomore Constantine Shipley finished 11th with 304.60 points.

Carnagey placed eighth in the 200-yard freestyle at 1:54.60, and fellow Firebird Lucas Fearn came one spot later at 1:55.86. For Lawrence, Cowardin finished 13th with a time of 2:01.92. Donly took 15th, finishing in 2:05.02 for the Lions.

Mattes finished third in the 200-yard individual medley at 2:05.43. Free State senior Asher Zelvy placed 10th at 2:14.25. Mattes later finished second in the 100-yard breaststroke at 1:02.03, while Zelvy came fifth at 1:05.49. Oral was the lone Lion to swim the event, finishing sixth at 1:05.57.

In the 50-yard freestyle, Lawrence’s Lane was the runner-up at 21.86 seconds. Free State’s Kempf swam it in 23.06 seconds, 12th in the event. Oral led Lawrence’s swimmers in the 100-yard butterfly, finishing seventh in 57.60 seconds. Basham was second on the team at 1:08.35 for 15th place.

Lane had another strong performance in the 100-yard freestyle, taking third at 48.01 seconds. Free State’s Bateman finished fifth in the race at 49.28 seconds.

Three Firebirds finished in the top 15 in the 500-yard freestyle. Junior Joseph Flachsbarth placed eighth at 5:20.63, Iversen was 12th at 5:31.63 and senior Milo Ovsak came 15th at 5:46.61. Cowardin and Donly finished in the top 15 for the Lions, with Cowardin placing 10th at 5:28.32 and Donly taking 14th at 5:44.36.

Free State senior Sina Khosh finished seventh in the 100-yard backstroke at 59.40 seconds, while Adams from Lawrence took eighth with a 1:00.70 time.