TOPEKA – A swimming meet on paper can be very different from a meet in a pool.
 
For that, Olathe South senior Kira Jacobs is extremely grateful.
 
In search of her first Class 6A title in her final state swimming and diving championships, Jacobs doubled her fun Saturday at the Capitol Federal Natatorium. A three-time, top-three finisher as an underclassmen in the 200-yard freestyle, Jacobs locked down her first gold medal in the event with a time of 1:53.07, more than a second clear of runner-up Maggie Dahl, a Blue Valley Northwest junior.
 
Then, in her maiden state voyage in the 100 backstroke, Jacobs held off fellow senior Emmy Barrett of Shawnee Mission East with a time of 58.19, prevailing by .21 and reclaiming the Falcon school record that she and her twin sister, Mia, traded like a hot potato this spring.
 
“I definitely wasn’t expecting this, so it’s very exciting,” said Jacobs, who will compete collegiately with her sister at Omaha in the fall.
 
The Jacobs sisters have been no strangers to the state medal stand throughout their careers, both landing there for the first time as freshmen. But with former 6A standouts like Blue Valley West’s Annika Finzen and Mill Valley’s Ella Hansen, and Blue Valley North’s talented senior duo of Margo Hauser and Sarah Blake, their path to the top has been blocked.
 
Even entering this year’s state meet, Kira Jacobs was seeded second in the 200 free to Shawnee Mission Northwest sophomore Fia Boshart – whose top time was .06 faster than Jacobs – and third in the 100 back behind Barrett and Blue Valley North sophomore Maddy Timson.
 
Prior to Saturday, Jacobs had experienced mixed feelings about her previous state appearances.
 
“At times, yes,” Jacobs said. “I’ve always been happy with my places, but you obviously also want a good time, too. Sometimes that doesn’t happen, but it’s always fun.”
 
Jacobs made sure of it on her final day as a high school swimmer.
 
After posting the top time in Friday’s preliminaries in the 200 free, Jacobs harnessed the lead in the third 50 of Saturday’s final and carried it to the finish. After a brief look at the timing scoreboard, Jacobs smiled and then leaned on the pool wall to collect her thoughts.
 
“I was excited and I think that excitement just carried me to the next one,” Jacobs said.
 
The backstroke marked the first change to Jacobs’ individual state itinerary. She finished second to Hansen in the 200 free a year ago after taking third as a freshman and sophomore. A two-time runner-up in the 500 free – including last year to Hauser – Jacobs opted for the back “because I kind of wanted something different.”
 
The other finalists were happy to oblige.
 
Jacobs again set the pace in Friday’s qualifying, swimming 58.47. Saturday’s final featured a tight pack coming out of the final turn. Jacobs led the pack to the wall in 58.19, followed by Barrett (58.40), Shawnee Mission Northwest’s Sofia Ellison (58.51) and Timson (58.75).
 
“It was definitely a tough race,” Jacobs said. “It was neck and neck, for sure. I was just excited to race everyone in that heat because they’re so fast. It was just good competition and very fun.”
 
The Jacobs sisters both finished with four medals on Saturday. They contributed to a runner-up finish to Blue Valley North in the 400 freestyle relay and a fourth-place effort in the 200 free relay. Mia Jacobs added second-place finishes in the 200 individual medley – her second straight in the event at state – and in the 100 freestyle.
 
Their performances helped the Falcons finish fifth in the 6A team standings with 165 points. It also provided a good send-off for both to the next stage of their careers.
 
“I can’t imagine my life not swimming,” Kira Jacobs said. “If I can, I might as well.”
 

 OLATHE EAST’S GETTYA REACHES NEW HIGH IN DIVING TITLE DEFENSE
 
There was no sophomore slump for Olathe East’s Irene Gettya.
 
A year after wresting the Class 6A diving title from two-time winner Claire Garrelts of Blue Valley Northwest, Gettya capped a season of building on her first-year achievements by defending her state title Saturday with a personal-best, 11-dive score of 519.20.
 
Using a front 1.5 double twister for one of her final three dives Saturday, Gettya padded her advantage over runner-up Avery Metcalf of Olathe North, who finished with 388.20 points, and third-place finisher Rhiannon Good of Washburn Rural, who had 378.75.
 
Driven by falling just short of the 500-point plateau as a freshman at the Sunflower League and state meets, Gettya surpassed that with a 515.20 winning score at the league meet a couple weeks before state. She appeared comfortable Saturday during her trio of attempts that added four points to her personal-best total.
 
“I’m so happy that the fake confidence worked,” Gettya joked. “Nice to know that it doesn’t look like I’m nervous.”
 
Gettya put in the work to set up the title defense, adding the front twister to her arsenal with diving coach Ryan Meeker’s assistance in the final weeks of the season.
 
“I got it only a few weeks ago thanks to Ryan, but we’ve really been working on it a lot. The was the best execution of it at a meet, but I’ve had better dives at practice. The nerves definitely got to me.”
 
Still, Gettya built an insurmountable margin at each stage of the competition, leading Metcalf by nearly 60 points after the preliminary round and 101.5 points after the semifinals. After posting a winning score of 494.15 in her state debut, Gettya’s total on Saturday pulled her within 19.25 points of 6A state meet record holder Tammy Crystal, who accumulated 538.45 points to win for Blue Valley Northwest in 1998.
 
“I was more comfortable getting into it, definitely,” Gettya said. “It’s been really awesome to have Ryan and Coach (Dave) Youker and everybody else who has helped me along the way. That definitely made it easier mentally. There was not as much stress.”
 
Meeker said Gettya evolved as a diver this year and is excited to see additional development in the second half of her high school career. Much of that improvement, he added is multi-dimensional.
 
“Diving is what diving is, but most of what we do is mental and some of it is even outside the pool,” he said. “I saw a lot of personal growth in her this year. I saw a lot of her making more connections. All the stuff that we’ve been working on just came with a little more emphasis this year.”
 

 MILL VALLEY’S STIDHAM-EBBERTS, SM NORTHWEST’S BOSHART GRAB GOLD AS SOPHOMORES
 
As much as Abigale Stidham-Ebberts remembered her fourth-place finish in the Class 6A 100-yard breaststroke last year as a freshman, she also recalled taking third in the preliminaries one day earlier.
 
That memory opened her to the possibilities for her second state appearance on Saturday.
 
“With (2024 champion) Annika (Finzen) graduating and Margo (Hauser) not doing the 100 breast this year, I knew I could at least get in the top three this year,” said Stidham-Ebberts, a Mill Valley sophomore. “To be in a spot like that as a sophomore is really cool.”
 
Stidham-Ebberts took it all the way to the top of the medal stand, backing up her top preliminary time with an even better 1:04.80 in the finals to win by more than a second over Olathe East freshman Katharine Costello, who finished in 1:06.14.
 
Stidham-Ebberts was one of two sophomores who captured their first 6A individual titles. Shawnee Mission Northwest’s Fia Boshart, who took second to former Mill Valley standout Ella Hansen in the 100 butterfly last year, filled the vacated title Saturday with a winning time of 56.25.
 
Both swimmers earned four state medals for the second consecutive year. Stidham-Ebberts, who finished seventh in the 50 freestyle as a freshman, vaulted to second Saturday behind defending champion Sarah Blake of Blue Valley North, who won in 23.75. Stidham-Ebberts touched the wall in 24.11.
 
The breaststroke and sprint freestyle success is a unique combination for a swimmer, even one with all-around talent like Stidham-Ebberts. She said her breaststroke prowess has been a recent development.
 
“I would say over the past two years it has really become my favorite and best of the strokes,” Stidham-Ebberts said. “I’ve improved so much with it. I qualified for a big meet in it during the club season, and that was my point where I was like, ‘Wait, I’m actually kind of good at this.’”
 
Stidham-Ebberts’ preliminary swim was similar to her freshman year at state – both in the 1:05s. But after adding time in the finals in her state debut, Stidham-Ebberts peeled .62 off her prelim effort on Saturday to take the title. Among those she outdueled was fifth-place finisher Katie LaHood of Blue Valley Northwest, who edged Stidham-Ebberts for third a year ago.
 

While Stidham-Ebberts took silver in the 50 free, her climb to that spot was arguably just as impressive. The Jaguar made a .75 improvement on her state debut time and defeated four swimmers who topped her last year at the Shawnee Mission School District Aquatic Center.
 
“My times have been really close together, so I didn’t know how much I was going to improve or how well I was going to do in the 50,” Stidham-Ebberts said. “It’s really hard to predict because it’s such a fast race.
 
“Getting to race Sarah Blake in the prelims and finals was really nice for me. It totally helped. I don’t think the outcome would have been the same if I was racing someone else.”
 
Boshart, meanwhile, entered the season knowing the 6A butterfly title was available after Hansen moved on to compete collegiately at Missouri. Still, she had to reset for Saturday’s finals after a disappointing 200 freestyle prelim and qualifying second in the fly, more than a half second behind Olathe Northwest junior Angela McCoy.
 
“I was a little frustrated with my times Friday,” Boshart said. “My 200 free wasn’t how I wanted it to go. But coming back and doing better today was a good thing.”
 
Boshart, who finished sixth at state in the 100 breast as a freshman, took fourth in the 200 free Saturday, cutting nearly 2.5 seconds off her prelim time to finish in 1:56.76. But in the 100 fly, Boshart swam like the clear favorite, outpacing McCoy by 1.50 seconds with her season-best showing.
 
“That felt really good,” said Boshart, who also led off for the Cougars’ second-place 200 freestyle relay and anchored the sixth-place 400 free relay team. “I’ve been working toward it this whole season.
 
“I switched club teams this year and have worked on fly a lot just to make sure that I can get it sharp. Today, I just knew I had to take it out strong and make sure I came back that way, too.”


CLASS 6A ALL-STATE TEAMS
 
First team
 
Libby Barney, jr., Olathe East; Charlotte Barton, sr., Blue Valley North; Sarah Blake, sr., Blue Valley North; Fia Boshart, so., Shawnee Mission Northwest; Maggie Dahl, jr., Blue Valley Northwest; Irene Gettya, so., Olathe East; Margo Hauser, sr., Blue Valley North; Kira Jacobs, sr., Olathe South; Mia Jacobs, sr., Olathe South; Jordan Kleeman, jr., Wichita East; Angela McCoy, jr., Olathe Northwest; Abigale Stidham-Ebberts, so., Mill Valley; Maddy Timson, so., Blue Valley North.
 
Second team
 
Audrey Appuhn, jr., Washburn Rural; Emmy Barrett, sr., Shawnee Mission East; Georgia Boyd, jr., Shawnee Mission East; Katharine Costello, fr., Olathe East; Sofia Ellison, jr., Shawnee Mission Northwest; Avery Johnson, fr., Blue Valley West; Natalie Jones, jr., Shawnee Mission East; Kallie Kennedy, sr., Olathe East; Siena Masilionis, sr., Blue Valley North; Liddy McCoy, fr., Blue Valley North; Helena Mattes, so., Free State; Avery Metcalf, jr., Olathe North; Ridlee Parkhurst, so., Derby; Jocelyn Wilson, sr., Free State.

6A athlete of the meet – Margo Hauser, Blue Valley North
 
6A coach of the year – Jordan Jacobs, Blue Valley West