photo by: David Rodish/Journal-World

Free State senior Amelia Rockhold cheers on a teammate in Free State's senior night quad on Wednesday April 15, 2026, in Lawrence.

Most years, the Lawrence Indoor Aquatic Center’s south wall is filled with senior portraits of the Free State swim and dive team. This year, the wall only has two.

Ashlyn Johnson and Amelia Rockhold make up a smaller senior class than usual for the Firebirds, but their class size hasn’t limited their impact on the team. As two captains, they’ve worked hard to cultivate an atmosphere for growth.

“Honestly, I think they’re the most proud of their young teammates and the times that they’re getting,” Free State coach Janna Skinner said. “That’s a huge part for Ashlyn and Amelia, just watching the growth of their teammates.”

The difference is Johnson and Rockhold’s attitude. They come to practice with a positive attitude and support their teammates.

Rockhold has been on the team for four years, while Johnson transferred from Eudora two years ago. That combined experience has allowed the two to see what works as senior leaders, and also what doesn’t work.

“Knowing what not to be like is also really helpful in making connections with the girls and keeping it friendly,” Rockhold said. “We’re not the coaches, we’re just captains.”

Last year’s Free State senior class was both large in size and in leadership. Johnson and Rockhold both had close friendships with members of the 2025 class, and that group helped the two seniors understand the responsibilities of being a captain and what works.

It’s crucial to have a supportive atmosphere for a sport like swimming, which has a high burnout rate due to its natural isolation and intense, physical training. But with captains that show genuine love for the team and their teammates, it makes that challenge easier.

“They have a very big love for their team,” Skinner said. “You can see Amelia cheer for every single race. They love their team and they love their teammates… It’s hard to see your direct input, direct output. But the atmosphere from (the seniors) in those lanes definitely gets those girls coming back every single day, and that helps a lot.”

On Wednesday’s senior night home quad, Rockhold was on the far side of the pool supporting her teammates. Johnson and others soon followed suit for other races, and a swarm of Firebirds were there cheering on Johnson when she swam the 500-yard freestyle.

Swimmers can’t see their teammates at the end of the pool very often on races, particularly the freestyle races, because of how low their head is in the water. When you can see your teammates, it makes a difference to see that support, and Rockhold said she can directly attribute one of her best times ever to seeing her teammates support her.

But the main point of being at the end of the pool is the show of support at all times, even when the Firebird swimming at the time doesn’t know it. The standard is the standard, and that’s to always be there to support your teammates.

“It’s important to establish that precedent that nobody is swimming alone,” Johnson said.

Johnson and Rockhold’s responsibilities extend beyond the pool. They run the team group chat, pick out the swim suits and T-shirts and coordinate team dinners. The seniors coordinate the fun stuff and keep things light.

“We do all the fun stuff, (Skinner) does all the mean stuff,” Johnson said.

It helps that the team knows each other well from before high school. For those that didn’t swim club, Rockhold said it’s important to build a relationship with everyone. But with many on the team having swam together on club swim teams, it makes building the relationships easier.

“It’s not like it really changed when we all got together at high school,” Johnson said, “we just switched our caps.”

Free State might not have the roster size to be able to win state, but the team will put up points and send a large contingent of swimmers to the state meet.

A team with a small senior class typically comes with a larger underclassmen group, and the Firebirds are no exception. But the team isn’t young in terms of its experience in the pool. The Firebirds have excelled to start the swim season, and a part of that is because of the youth of the team stepping up.

The success of the youth has the senior class excited. It means they can have a good postseason for their final year at Free State, and it means that the future of the program they love is going to be OK.

“I’ve felt unsupported and wishing for more of a peer relationship before,” Rockhold said. “Leaving the opposite precedent is really important to me.”