photo by: David Rodish/Journal-World

Lawrence's Alex Oral swims the 100-yard breaststroke in the Sunflower League swim and dive meet on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, in Lenexa.

LENEXA — Free State and Lawrence’s boys swim and dive teams competed in the Sunflower League meet at the Shawnee Mission School District Aquatic Center, which culminated in the finals on Saturday.

The Firebirds tied with Olathe East for fourth, scoring 204 points. The Lions scored 104 team points, which put them 10th.

“We came away with a lot of personal bests, especially for this season,” Free State coach Janna Skinner said. “That’s all we can hope for. That’s what we train for. Not every race went the way we want, but across the meet, we got a lot of personal bests.”

The 200-yard medley relay was the first event of the meet, and Free State took fourth at one minute, 47.00 seconds. Lawrence placed ninth with a 1:54.20 time, which was an improvement upon the Lions’ consideration time.

In the 200-yard freestyle, Firebird Owen Carnagey placed 10th at 1:54.38, which put him exactly at the 6A state qualifying time. Lawrence’s Lawson Donly took 12th at 2:01.56. Free State’s Ying Tong Li placed 10th in the 200-yard individual medley at 2:17.46. Fellow Firebird Ethan Lynch finished 19th at 2:43.36.

Free State’s Anderson Bateman placed fourth in the 50-yard freestyle at 21.89 seconds. He dropped 0.29 seconds from his seed time to the finals, clearing the 22-second mark. Eli Kempf from Free State placed 13th at 24.02 seconds, and Lawrence’s Garrett Rhea finished 21st at 25.00 seconds.

The fifth event was the diving finals, which featured three local divers. Free State’s Gavin McIntosh placed fifth at 410.25 points, and Lawrence’s Cale Ward finished ninth at 256.05 points. Firebird Constantine Shipley scored 326.50 points, which was 12th in the event.

Sam Bauch from Free State was the runner-up in the 100-yard butterfly, finishing in 55.08 seconds. Lawrence’s Alex Oral placed sixth at 57.62 seconds, but his prelim time of 56.65 seconds was below the 6A qualifying time. Li placed 11th at 1:02.99, while Free State’s Gavin Koonce took 13th at 1:03.89. Lawrence’s Junu McCall swam it in 1:07.81, which was 16th.

Bateman placed third in the 100-yard freestyle with a 48.34-second time. His finals time was 0.42 seconds faster than his seed time, but Bateman swam faster in the prelim race, finishing in 48.21 seconds.

“I feel like I showed out a little faster in prelims, but I’m still happy to come home with medals and stuff,” Bateman said.

Skinner called Bateman a “methodical swimmer” who takes in his coaching well and applies it to his races.

“So when he gets to meets like this, everything is automatic for him,” Skinner said. “He doesn’t have to think about it. A lot of our swimmers could use that mentality, that it’s the small things — doing them consistently so when you race it’s all there for you.”

In the 500-yard freestyle, Donly finished 14th at 5:39.51, while Free State’s Owen Metz took 20th at 6:28.28. The second relay was the 200-yard freestyle, which Free State’s top team finished third in at 1:32.53. Lawrence placed seventh in the race at 1:37.76.

Campbell placed eighth in the 100-yard backstroke at 1:00.23, while Lawrence’s Armando Romero-Perez took 12th at 1:03.14. Romero-Perez dropped nearly six seconds from his entry time and improved another 1.54 seconds from his prelim time to his finals time. Free State’s Cooper Trummel placed 16th at 1:11.76, while Lynch finished 20th at 1:14.23.

The final individual race was the 100-yard breaststroke, which Oral placed seventh in at 1:06.35. He swam just under three seconds faster in his prelim race than his seed time. Free State’s Graysen Koonce took 12th at 1:08.83, dropping 2.30 seconds from his seed time.

The meet concluded with the 400-yard freestyle, in which Free State placed fourth at 3:24.18. The Firebirds dropped over six seconds from their seed time. Lawrence took 10th at 3:45.45, but the team’s prelim race time of 3:41.82 was 14.33 seconds faster than the seed time.

The Lions and the Firebirds will taper and prepare for the state meet starting on Feb. 19 at the Shawnee Mission School District Aquatic Center.

“With our showing at this meet, I think we can really do some good things at state in two weeks,” Bateman said. “Especially our 200 free (relay). We got third here, and I think we can definitely place and come back at state. Our state team is looking really nice this year.”

photo by: David Rodish/Journal-World

Lawrence diver Cale Ward dives in the Sunflower League swim and dive meet on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, in Lenexa.

photo by: David Rodish/Journal-World

Lawrence’s Alex Oral swims the 100-yard butterfly in the Sunflower League swim and dive meet on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, in Lenexa.

photo by: David Rodish/Journal-World

Free State’s Anderson Bateman swims the 100-yard freestyle in the Sunflower League swim and dive meet on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, in Lenexa.

photo by: David Rodish/Journal-World

Free State’s Owen Metz swims the 500-yard freestyle in the Sunflower League swim and dive meet on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, in Lenexa.

photo by: David Rodish/Journal-World

Lawrence’s Lawson Donly swims the 500-yard freestyle in the Sunflower League swim and dive meet on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, in Lenexa.

photo by: David Rodish/Journal-World

Lawrence’s Armando Romero-Perez swims the 100-yard backstroke in the Sunflower League swim and dive meet on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, in Lenexa.

photo by: David Rodish/Journal-World

Free State’s Graysen Koonce turns in the 100-yard breaststroke in the Sunflower League swim and dive meet on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, in Lenexa.

photo by: David Rodish/Journal-World

Free State’s Ewan Campbell swims the 100-yard backstroke in the Sunflower League swim and dive meet on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, in Lenexa.

photo by: David Rodish/Journal-World

Free State’s Graysen Koonce swims the 100-yard breaststroke in the Sunflower League swim and dive meet on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, in Lenexa.

photo by: David Rodish/Journal-World

Free State’s Cooper Trummel swims the 100-yard backstroke in the Sunflower League swim and dive meet on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, in Lenexa.