photo by: David Rodish/Journal-World

Free State sophomore Helena Mattes swims the 100-yard breaststroke in the 6A state girls swim and dive meet at the Capitol Federal Natatorium on Saturday, May 24, 2025, in Topeka.

Topeka — Free State and Lawrence’s girls swim and dive teams competed in the 6A KSHSAA state tournament from Thursday to Saturday, with the Firebirds finishing ninth and the Lions tying for 25th.

Saturday was the final day, with prelim and semifinal rounds of dive taking place on Thursday and the prelim swim events on Friday. Free State scored 127 points, while Lawrence scored two.

Neither school had a diver compete on the final day, and the swim events started with the 200-yard medley relay. Free State’s team placed fifth at 1 minute, 54.41 seconds.

Free State sophomore Helena Mattes swam the 200-yard individual medley and took fifth in 2:10.93, while Lawrence junior Ashlyn Tell finished 15th in the event with a 2:23.53 time. Mattes later placed fourth in the 100-yard breaststroke at 1:06.88.

Senior Firebird Gayla Gao swam the 100-yard fly in 1:00.81, which was seventh in the meet. She also swam the 100-yard backstroke in 1:04.35 for 11th.

Free State senior Jocelyn Wilson placed fourth in the 100-yard freestyle in 54.08 seconds and took sixth in the 100-yard backstroke in 1:00.41. In the prelims of the 100-yard backstroke, Wilson tied for sixth with Shawnee Mission East’s Vada Walsh, but Wilson beat her by a little less than a second in the finals.

Mattes and Wilson earned second-team all-state honors for their work in the state tournament. Mattes scored a team-high 29 points, and Wilson finished with 28. Gao added another 18 points to the Firebirds with her individual races.

“It’s fantastic,” Wilson said about ending her career as second-team all-state. “I’ve worked really hard to get where I am, and this is a great way to end it. Now, I have four more years to come.”

Wilson said she’s dreamed of swimming at the Division I level. Now that she swam her last Free State meet, Wilson’s next team will be the South Dakota State Jackrabbits.

“I’m really going to reflect on how much these girls have supported me,” Wilson said. “I’m going to use what they’ve given me to future teammates.”

To end the day and their season together, the Firebirds swam the 400-yard freestyle relay, placing seventh in 3:49.37. Wilson said the team was tired but wanted to dig deep for one final swim together. The team dropped almost two seconds off its seed time in the finals.

Free State coach Janna Skinner said the team hoped to swim a little faster in certain events, but the team swam well overall.

“We got a couple of seniors on the podium that had never been on the podium before, so overall, it was a good meet,” Skinner said. “We didn’t perform as well as a few swimmers hoped, but we finished in the top 10.”

The Firebirds are graduating a large senior group that made a difference in the pool and built strong team chemistry. With a few returners coming back and having important roles, the hope is that the overall team dynamic can continue into the future.

“It’s made a big difference,” Skinner said. “When their teammates are supportive, they want to come back to practice, they want to come back next year. Hopefully, that message is going to spread, and we’ll have more underclassmen next year.”

For Lawrence, the team will bring only one swimmer back from its state team of four. A junior this year, Tell will begin her final year with the team.

photo by: David Rodish/Journal-World

Free State senior Gayla Gao swims the 100-yard fly in the 6A state girls swim and dive meet at the Capitol Federal Natatorium on Saturday, May 24, 2025, in Topeka.

photo by: David Rodish/Journal-World

Free State senior Jocelyn Wilson swims the 100-yard backstroke in the 6A state girls swim and dive meet at the Capitol Federal Natatorium on Saturday, May 24, 2025, in Topeka.