There’s not many tougher tasks in sports than defending a championship. It’s tough to keep that edge needed to compete at a championship level, the spotlight is always bright, and there’s no sneaking up on anybody.

But that’s the goal for Free State High’s gymnastics team. The Firebirds have won state titles in two of the past three years, and in three of the last five.

The Firebirds brought back a lot of talent from last year’s 6A state champion squad, but there’s plenty of teams gunning for this year’s crown. Olathe East has edged them at a couple of meets this season.

However, the difference with gymnastics compared to every other fall sport is the break between the Sunflower League meet and the state meet. The Firebirds, along with Lawrence High, will compete in the league meet on Saturday, before waiting two weeks for state. That allows teams to work on more difficult skills to unleash at state.

“In two weeks, a lot of things can happen,” FSHS and LHS gymnastics coach Brooke Kissinger said. “We still don’t totally know, but (regular season meets) give us a good idea of who is kind of where and what kind of chances we have at state.”

With seniors Grace Bartle, Carrie Howland, Haley Johnson, the Firebirds definitely have the cards that give them a good shot of repeating this year.

Bartle scored a 9.2 in the vault and 9.1 on floor exercise at the All-Around Invitational on Wednesday. Howland was strong on the vault (9.0) and beam (8.75), while Johnson scored an 8.7 on both the vault and beam. All three placed in the top-10, with Bartle taking second place, Howland in sixth and Johnson in eighth.

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Speaking of the difficulty of repeating as a state champion, Free State’s girls cross country team will try to defend its title at the end of the month.

The girls’ team is ranked No. 1 in Class 6A in the Kansas cross country coaches poll, just ahead of Maize, Olathe East and Manhattan. The Firebirds have a strong core group with sophomore Emily Venters, junior Claire Sanner, sophomore Kiran Cordes, junior Liv Lyche and senior Marlee Yost-Wolff. .

Meanwhile, Free State’s boys cross country team is still ranked No. 2 in 6A, but have picked up a ton of votes in the past two weeks and are narrowly behind Manhattan. Blue Valley and Garden City aren’t far behind, either.

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Lawrence High and Free State’s girls tennis teams are prepping for regionals on Saturday in Gardner-Edgerton, but the weather this week hasn’t done them any favors.

Practice time has been shorter than I’m sure both schools would like with rain over the past few days. However, they have plenty to be confident about after LHS took fifth place in the Sunflower League meet last week, while Free State took seventh.

The Lions haven’t had someone represent them at state in the past two years, but should have a good shot of adding some qualifiers this year after senior Kendall Pritchard went 2-1 at No. 1 doubles at league, while Anna and Yelena Birt have shown potential at No. 1 doubles.

For the Firebirds, Caitlin and Ali Dodd have played well as a doubles pairing.
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A few city athletes have made some news with their college recruitment:

•Free State senior swimmer Courtney Caldwell orally committed to North Carolina State last month. Caldwell, a six-time state champion along with three relay championships, joins a collegiate team that has a reputation for developing sprint freestylers.

•Lawrence High junior point guard Justin Roberts earned his first scholarship offer from UMKC earlier this week. Roberts averaged a team-best 17.2 points per game for LHS last season, while also leading with 75 assists.

•Lawrence High junior lineman Amani Bledsoe picked up scholarship offers from Texas Tech on Tuesday, Oklahoma and Ohio State on Wednesday, and Nebraska on Thursday. He currently holds eight offers.

I talked to him last week about the recruiting process after he took an unofficial to Nebraska last month, when he visited the Cornhuskers’ facilities, saw a practice and watched them beat Miami.

“All of the attention is great right now,” Bledsoe said. “I heard it might get annoying later on, so we’ll have to wait and see.”
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