photo by: David Rodish/Journal-World

Free State's Dylan Tenbrink, left, counts laps for Siggi Mattes in the 500-yard freestyle in a swimming meet at the Shawnee Mission School District Aquatic Center on Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Lenexa.

A smaller-than-usual roster size from Free State on Saturday didn’t keep the Firebirds from having a good meet with personal bests at the Shawnee Mission School District Invitational.

Diver Harper Huston qualified for state as she finished with 189.20 points in the diving semifinal on Friday. Having Huston qualify means that the Firebirds now have at least one person qualified in every event.

“It’s a morale booster for the team,” Free State coach Janna Skinner said. “We have depth in every race. It’s not just a couple people doing it for the team, everyone is contributing.”

The Firebirds had a few regular swimmers absent from the tournament due to the KSHSAA State Solo and Ensemble Music Festival, which pulled band, choir and orchestra kids out of the pool. A club swim meet in Topeka drew a few more swimmers away, but the Firebirds were able to score 64 points and improve upon previous bests.

“We are definitely a smaller group today, but we had some personal bests,” Skinner said. “We definitely had some good swims for a smaller team.”

The second day of the meet started with the 200-yard medley relay, which Free State’s team finished in two minutes, 20.77 seconds for 19th. The first individual race was the 200-yard freestyle, in which Bridget Collins took 11th at 2:08.95.

Siggi Mattes placed seventh in the 50-yard freestyle at 25.19 seconds, dropping 0.75 seconds from her seed time. Dylan Tenbrink took 31st in the race at 28.02 seconds, which was nearly a second faster than her seed time, and Maria Fuentes Sanchez swam it in 28.92 seconds, which was a 0.43-second improvement. Fuentes Sanchez’s time already exceeds her best from a season ago. Alina Jones, who is a swimming newcomer this year, finished 55th at 30.47 seconds.

Tenbrink earned a consideration time and placed 27th in the 100-yard freestyle at 1:01.54, and Fuentes Sanchez finished 39th at 1:04.30, with both dropping their time by around half a second. In the 500-yard freestyle, Mattes placed fourth at 5:18.48, which was an improvement of over seven seconds. Collins finished eighth at 5:43.72, and Amelia Rockhold took 31st at 6:51.61.

Free State took 14th in the 200-yard freestyle relay at 1:52.21, dropping over a second in time. For the final relay, the 400-yard freestyle relay, the Firebirds placed 10th at 4:14.87.

In the 100-yard backstroke, Ashlyn Johnson dropped half a second from her seed time to take 26th at 1:13.30. Penelope All placed 31st at 1:16.78, which was 2.13 seconds faster than her best. Chloe Carnagey swam the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:29.47, which was 32nd in the meet.

Free State has two meets left on the schedule before the Sunflower League meet on Saturday, May 7. The Firebirds will participate in an Olathe South quad on Thursday before another meet at the Shawnee Mission School District Aquatic Center the following Saturday.

“We are bringing along some intermediate swimmers to faster times,” Skinner said. “The intermediate section of our team is going to help us as we close in on the championship part of the season.”