LENEXA — For the last three years, Olathe East junior Irene Gettya had one number in mind every time she stepped onto the diving board at the Class 6A State Swim and Dive Championships.  

On Saturday at the Shawnee Mission School District Aquatic Center, Gettya finally reached it — and then soared past it. 

Gettya left little doubt in her quest for a third consecutive Class 6A diving title, delivering one of the most dominant performances in state history while shattering a record that had stood for nearly three decades. 

The Olathe East standout posted a final score of 570.95, breaking the Class 6A state meet record of 538.45 set in 1998 by Blue Valley Northwest’s Tammy Crystal. Gettya also won the competition by more than 160 points, further cementing her place among the top high school divers Kansas has ever seen. 

“That record is what we have been aiming toward for the last three years,” Gettya said. “I am just really thankful for all my coaches and friends who have helped me along the way. I am so excited that I was able to get the record and I honestly didn’t expect this was going to happen.” 

The moment carried even more meaning because of who previously held the mark. Crystal, one of the legends of Kansas diving, coached Gettya briefly when she was younger, and the two have remained close over the years. 

“I feel very honored to be right up there with Tammy Crystal,” Gettya said. “She even coached me for a little bit when I was younger and she is the sweetest person alive. She wanted me to break the record too. I am so excited to call her and let her know how I did.” 

 

Gettya set the tone early in the competition, building a commanding advantage during Thursday’s preliminaries. She carried a 409.30 to 311.95 lead over Olathe North’s Avery Metcalf into Saturday’s finals, already positioning herself for another championship run. 

Then came the performance that effectively put the title — and the record — out of reach for everyone else. 

In the finals, Gettya dazzled judges and spectators alike, recording three perfect 10s on her second dive of the day, a moment that all but sealed the championship. 

“I was really proud of the way I dove in the finals,” Gettya said. “I was really surprised that I got such high scores on that second dive, but even with that, I know there is a lot that can still be improved on like always.” 

For Olathe East diving coach Ryan Meeker, the performance was years in the making. 

“It was pretty awesome and I really enjoyed watching it,” Meeker said. “I have known Tammy for a long time and it has been fun to be a part of this journey. She did fantastic both Thursday and Saturday. I could not be more proud of her.” 

Meeker believed the record was within reach, but knew it would still take the right performance on the right day. 

“I was pretty confident that she would be able to get the record this year,” Meeker said. “It is all about who did what on the day. Confidence only gets you so far, but it was cool to watch her go up there and dive her heart out. It was the privilege of a lifetime to go out there and watch her do her thing.” 

 

Even after three straight state titles, Gettya insists the motivation stretches beyond standing atop the podium. 

“Winning never gets old,” Gettya said. “Honestly, I am just trying to make my coach proud. I am just trying to do the best that I can. There are always more goals to achieve and it is not always about winning.” 

Gettya, who has been diving since she was 5 years old, said the journey to breaking the record came through years of planning and steady support. 

“It is all about setting clear goals and my coach really helped me out with that,” Gettya said. “He was the one who drove this goal for the record. It is all about setting up a plan and following through with it and my parents and my friends have really helped me get there.” 

And despite already etching her name into Kansas history, Gettya isn’t done chasing what comes next. 

“As far as what next year holds, I just want to keep going in whatever fashion that presents,” Gettya said. “I want to try some more difficult dives and just have some fun with it. Of course, winning another one would be great too.”
 

CHANGE OF PACE DELIVERS DOUBLE GOLD, SWIMMER OF MEET FOR BLUE VALLEY NORTHWEST’S DAHL
 
There really was no reason for Maggie Dahl to deviate from what worked so well for her at the 2025 Class 6A state meet.
 
Enjoying the best state meet of her career a year ago, Dahl finished runner-up in both the 200 and 500 freestyles. And with both of last year’s state champions in those events having graduated – Olathe South’s Kira Jacobs in the 200 freestyle and Blue Valley North’s Margo Hauser in the 500 freestyle – Dahl seemingly was the heir apparent to those thrones this year.
 
Only Dahl had other ideas.
 
“I love sprinting,” the Blue Valley Northwest senior said. “I feel like I can apply myself better in the sprints. The 200 and 500, you look at it and it’s holding pace. But the 50 and 100, it’s just, ‘Go!’”
 
Trading the 200 and 500 for the 50 and 100 freestyle clearly was a golden decision for Dahl as she had no trouble claiming the state title in both. Dahl won the 50 freestyle by a whopping .58 seconds and then came back to dominate the 100 freestyle as well, winning by more than two seconds.
 
Her double-gold showing earned her co-athlete of the meet honors with Olathe East diver Irene Gettya, who not only won her third straight state title but demolished the state meet record by more than 30 points.
 
“I never thought I’d win anything, let alone these races,” Dahl said. “I didn’t even make finals my freshman year in anything. I remember watching them swim in the finals thinking I’d love to do that some day. I just never thought I would.”
 
Knowing she would likely be the favorite for the state titles in the 200 and 500 this year did make the decision to change a little tough for Dahl, who said “I’ve swam them for so long that that’s what I wanted (a state title) in.”
 
But at the same time, she said the move just felt right to make her senior year. Last year’s champion in the 50 and 100 freestyles, Blue Valley North’s Sarah Blake, had also graduated so the throne in those events was vacant as well.
 
Plus, she’d seen serious improvement from rival Libby Barnes of Olathe East, who was third behind her in both the 200 and 500, as well as an influx of talented freshmen such as Blue Valley West’s Hayden Benbow and Amber Stringer.
 
Once she made the move to the sprints, Dahl said there wasn’t much of an adjustment in getting the feeling down.
 
“The tempo’s just more intense,” she said.
 

 
Focusing on the sprints during club, Dahl knew she still had plenty of competition in her new specialties. Derby’s Ridlee Parkhurst had posted faster times through most of the club season leading into the start of the high school season. And Blue Valley West also had a pair of talented freshmen there as well in Anya Pivonka and Sasha Weiner, not to mention Mill Valley’s Abby Stidham-Ebberts was back after taking second in the 50 freestyle last year.
 
“I came into the season not really sure how it would pan out,” she said. “But as the season went along, it was like, ‘Oh my god, I’ve got a chance to win it this year.’”
 
Dahl established herself as the favorite during the regular season when she turned in times of 23.97 in the 50 freestyle and 51.44 in the 100 freestyle. Her 50 time was a half-second faster than Stidham-Ebberts’ season best of 24.47 while her 100 time of 51.44 was more than two and a half seconds faster than any other 6A swimmer.
 
Dahl had no trouble qualifying first in both events and then had no trouble in turning that into two golds in the finals. She posted a 23.14 in the 50 freestyle to beat West’s Pivonka by almost a second – an eternity margin in that race – with Pivonka clocking a 24.12. Weiner was third in 24.55 and Stidham-Ebberts took fourth in 24.69.
 
Her battle with Parkhurst that the Derby standout had prevailed during club was no contest in the 100 finals as Dahl won in 50.77 with Parkhurst a distant second in 53.04.
 
“These whole past few weeks haven’t felt real,” she said. “I didn’t cry at senior night, at graduation, at EKL. I think it’s all going to hit me like a truck when it does.”
 

 
LATE-SEASON DECISION TURNS GOLDEN FOR SM NORTHWEST’S BOSHART
 
Fia Boshart has never really considered herself much of a backstroker.
 
She’d dabbled with it during club season and then again at an early dual this season. But having already been a state medalist in both the 200 freestyle and the 100 breaststroke to complement her specialty event, the 100 butterfly, Boshart never really guessed she would plug the backstroke into her state repertoire.
 
One simple addition and one bit-time meet result changed all of that. The Shawnee Mission Northwest junior started to use a nose plug when she swam the event and said, “it just works for me.”
 
Boy, does it. Boshart gave the 100 backstroke a try at the Sunflower League meet and wound up winning the title by three seconds with a time of 57.06 that vaulted her to the top of the Class 6A standings in the event. Already the favorite in the 100 butterfly after capturing the state title in the event last spring, Boshart suddenly had a realistic shot at earning double gold at the Class 6A state meet.
 
“The 100 fly is more of my thing,” Boshart said. “I did the 100 back at league and it ended up being something I was good at. So it just kind of depended on what other people would end up swimming. I hadn’t really worked on the 200 free or 100 breast in practice that much so this year I thought maybe I’d try the 100 back, the 50 free or maybe the 200 IM. I ended up going in the 100 back because I knew I could go faster in it.”
 
Boshart waasn’t quite able to duplicate her league meet time at the state meet. But the decision to add that event at state still was a golden one.
 
After qualifying second to Blue Valley West freshman Anya Pivonka in Friday’s prelims, Boshart made a late push in the championship finals on Saturday to claim the state title. Boshart finished in 57.28, just .22 off her league meet time, and powered past both Pivonka and fellow Blue Valley West freshman Sasha Weiner for the victory.
 
Weiner was runner-up in 57.59 while Pivonka, who went 57.29 in prelims, took third in 58.46.
 
“I knew I had good competition that would really push me,” Boshart said. “I’d been working with my coach Deidra (Peterson) and my club coach, making sure I hit my underwaters and had fast tempo.”
 

 
The gold medal was the second of the day for Boshart as she successfully defended the 100 butterfly state title she won a year ago as a sophomore. Just as she battled a pair of freshmen for the title in the 100 backstroke, so too was her top challenger in the fly from the freshman class as well.
 
Free State’s Ella Marsh was seeking her second state title of the meet after blowing away the field in the 200 individual medley. And going into the meet and coming out of prelims, the Firebird standout was right there in position to dethrone Boshart, swimming a 57.18 in prelims to Boshart’s 56.45.
 
But the two had met enough for Boshart to know what she was going up against.
 
“She definitely is a big challenge,” Boshart said. “I know her from club and she’s super-fast. I’ve raced her in club and during high school. It was just making sure I was doing what I needed to do and I would be fine.”
 
Boshart, who had beaten Marsh by more than a second at the league meet two week prior, left no opening for the Firebird to pull off the upset. She bolted to an early lead and steadily pulled away to win in 55.22 seconds, just over two seconds ahead of Marsh’s runner-up time of 57.23.
 
“I was really happy,” she said. “I got a new PR and obviously the first, so I’m really happy. It’s definitely a step up for me.”
 
As happy as Boshart was with her double-gold showing, she was just as proud of the state meet her freshman sister, Evie, turned in. The younger Boshart had qualified fifth in the 500 freestyle but moved up to a runner-up finish to Blue Valley West freshman Amber Stringer, knocking off more than nine seconds with a 5:09.00. Earlier in the meet, Evie had finished third in the 200 freestyle, dropping three-plus seconds to a 1:55.64.
 
“I was so happy for her,” Fia said. “She struggled a little bit at league and then (in prelims) so it was nice for her to have her moment and do really good.”
 
The Bosharts also led Northwest to a seventh-place finish in the 200 medley relay and a fifth in the 200 freestyle relay.
 

 

OLATHE EAST'S BARNEY CAPS SENIOR SEASON WITH LONG-AWAITED STATE TITLE IN 200 FREESTYLE 

For four years, Libby Barney kept chipping away at the clock — and at the doubts that came with it.  

On Saturday, the Olathe East senior finally got her reward. 

After steadily climbing the state podium throughout her career, Barney captured her first individual state championship at the Class 6A State Swim and Dive Championships at the Shawnee Mission District Aquatic Center, winning the 200-yard freestyle in dramatic fashion. 

Barney outdueled Blue Valley West freshman Hayden Benbow in one of the meet’s closest races, touching the wall in 1:53.11 to edge Benbow’s time of 1:53.39 and secure the gold medal. 

“It is so awesome,” Barney said. “My freshman year wasn’t a great one for me, but I have been building up to this point. So to win this one in my senior year — it just really paid off.” 

The victory represented the culmination of years of persistence for Barney, who admitted the road to the top podium spot was far from smooth. 

“It has been tough with mental blocks that I have had over the years, but to overcome that this year has just been really special,” Barney said. 

Barney’s title run began a day earlier during Friday’s preliminaries when she shaved nearly five seconds off her season-best time to earn the top seed heading into the finals. She carried that momentum into Saturday and held off a hard-charging Benbow to secure the championship. 

 

“It is just amazing that I won and I didn’t really care what my time was,” Barney said. “It was a really close race. My main goal coming in here was to win and that is what I did.” 

Barney nearly added another individual championship to her memorable final state meet. After posting the top preliminary time in the 500 freestyle, she returned later Saturday and finished third in 5:09.71. 

“That 500 was hard and I was a little nervous going into it,” Barney said. “I think after I finished it, I just thought to myself I had an amazing final state meet. For it being my senior year, I was just really happy with the way everything ended.” 

Her impact stretched beyond individual events. 

Barney helped anchor an Olathe East squad that secured a state plaque for the second straight season, finishing third in the Class 6A team standings with 245 points. She swam on the Hawks’ 200-yard freestyle relay team that placed fourth in 1:40.47 and the 400 freestyle relay team that earned bronze in 3:38.61. 

The state title marked a fitting finish to Barney’s rise at Olathe East. 

A year ago, she earned her first individual state medals with third-place finishes in both the 200 and 500 freestyles, emerging as one of the Hawks’ top scorers. One season later, she left the pool as a state champion. 

“We have had a really good season time-wise and we have had a lot of good freshmen that came in and swam well for us,” Barney said. “This is definitely the best team that I have had in my four years here.” 

 

 
MILL VALLEY’S STIDHAM-EBBERTS PUTS COMPETITION TO SLEEP WITH BREASTSTROKE TITLE DEFENSE
 
There wasn’t your typical “pump-you-up” music resonating out of Angela Stidham-Ebberts’ headphones as she prepared herself to defend the Class 6A 100 breaststroke title she won a year ago as a sophomore.
 
In fact, it wasn’t music at all.
 
“I played brown noise,” the Mill Valley junior said. “It’s something I do when I sleep as well. It just calms me. When all the nerves are rushing through my body and my head and I was kind of overwhelming myself with all these thoughts and possibilities of what could happen, the brown noise helps me reset.”
 
A calm, cool Stidham-Ebberts then went out and put the competition to bed in capturing her second straight 100 backstroke title. Battling Olathe East’s Katharine Costello for the title for a second straight year, Stidham-Ebberts again came out on top, finishing in 1:04.36 to edge her Sunflower League rival by .46 seconds.
 
“It was really tough,” Stidham-Ebberts said. “I had amazing competition and winning it is just amazing. All those girls looked up to me after last year and I look up to them, too. Every single one of them are amazing competitors and pushed me.”
 
None have pushed Stidham-Ebberts more than Costello. A year ago in the state finals, there was some clear separation between the two as Stidham-Ebberts won the title in 1:04.80 while Costello was more than a second back in 1:06.14, just holding off Washburn Rural’s Audrey Appuhn and Free State’s Helena Mattes for the runner-up spot.
 
But this season, Costello had closed the gap. In fact, she had overtaken Stidham-Ebberts as the 6A leader in the event prior to state. That happened at the Sunflower League meet where Costello came from behind over the final 50 yards to beat Stidham-Ebberts for the title, swimming a 6A-best 1:05.13 to Stidham-Ebbert’s 1:05.17.
 
And if brown noise puts the Jaguar standout to sleep, that league meet had the opposite effect.
 
“It was a wake-up call,” Stidham-Ebberts said. “I’ve always known she’s one of top competition for awhile. Coming into state I really knew what was best for me. My goal wasn’t really to beat her, because that didn’t happen at league. It was really go out there and do my best and have fun. Even in prelims, she beat me and that just made me lock in for finals to do my best.”
 

 
Costello did qualify first out of prelims with a 1:06.13 to Stidham-Ebberts’ time of 1:06.34, turning the Jaguar into the hunter instead of the hunted as she’d been for most of the season. The two were neck-and-neck throughout the first 50 yards of the finals before Stidham-Ebberts made a push over the final 25 yards to pull out the narrow win.
 
“There was so much pressure and I really felt it this year compared to last year,” Stidham-Ebberts said. “Katharine has really improved, gotten so much better this past season. I knew it was going to be a really tight race and I fought for it. This whole season, in my mind I knew we were going to be neck-and-neck. That’s how it was going to happen.
 
“I fought for it so hard. I used every single last drop of fuel I had in my tank.”
 
After taking runner-up in the 50 freestyle at state last year, Stidham-Ebberts slipped to a fourth-place finish this season, turning in a 24.69 that was a half-second slower than her runner-up time of 24.11 last year and left her behind Blue Valley Northwest’s Maggie Dahl (23.14) and Blue Valley West freshmen Anya Pivonka (24.12) and Sasha Weiner (24.55).
 

 
FREE STATE’S MARSH STANDS OUT AMONG STELLAR FRESHMAN CLASS AT 6A MEET
 
No question about it. This year’s freshman class made plenty of waves at the Class 6A state meet.
 
Blue Valley West rode the efforts of four freshmen standouts to the Class 6A team championship with the quartet of Amber Stringer, Hayden Benbow, Sasha Weiner and Anya Pivonka combining for eight top-four finishes in individual events – including a title from Stringer in the 500 freestyle – and forming the Jaguars’ entire state champion 400 freestyle relay.
 
And while Stringer could certainly make an argument as the top freshman at the meet, also taking second in the 200 individual medley, Free State’s Ella Marsh has a pretty strong case too. The Firebird freshman standout matched Stringer’s showing, coming away with one state gold and a runner-up finish to punctuate her place at the head of the class that also includes teammate Siggi Mattes, Shawnee Mission Northwest’s Evie Boshart and Shawnee Mission East’s Teni Oyetunji, among others.
 
“I’ve been swimming with so many of these girls since I started swimming club,” Marsh said. “We all push each other to do better because in club season, we all race each other at some point. It’s so fun to see us all do as well as we are in high school. I think we showed pretty well at this meet and it will be an intense next few years.”
 
An accomplished club swimmer, Marsh came into her freshman season not expecting to see big drops in time from her club performances based off information she’d gleaned from older teammates who’d experienced a leveling out of their times from club to high school.
 
And at Free State’s early meets, that’s kind of how things played out. Coming off posting a 2:04.8 in the 200 individual medley at the sectional meet held just before the start of the high school season, Marsh wasn’t hitting that time through the first month-plus of the season.
 
But at the Sunflower League meet in early May, things changed. Despite not getting a big push from her opponents, Marsh finally got the cut she hoped to see, lowering her IM time to a 2:03.68.
 
“I wasn’t expecting that at all,” Marsh said. “At that point, I thought, ‘OK, this (winning state) might really happen.’ I don’t like to put a lot of pressure on myself so I was like it could happen, but it’s OK if it doesn’t.”
 

 
That time established Marsh as the clear favorite to win the Class 6A title in the 200 IM. Her closest challenger in that race was Olathe Northwest’s Angela McCoy, whose 2:10.42 was the second-best mark in the IM during the season.
 
At state, Marsh proved there was no one capable of touching her in the 200 IM. She qualified first by more than seven seconds over Blue Valley West’s Stringer and then in the finals Marsh surprised herself even further, turning in a 2:02.80 that was her career best in club or high school, beating Stringer by more than seven seconds with Stringer holding off McCoy for the runner-up spot by .30 seconds with a time of 2:10.14.
 
While Marsh’s time didn’t really challenge the state meet record of 2:00.93 set by Blue Valley West’s Annika Finzen in 2023, it gets her within range with three years left to chase it.
 
“I came into the meet hoping to match my league time because I was pretty confident I was going to win,” Marsh said. “To get that time, I’ve been training really hard and it showed out. … That’s definitely a goal I’m going to keep in mind the next few years because I’m planning to keep doing high school. It’s something I’m going to go for and I think I can do it if I keep training how I have been. I think it’s definitely possible.”
 
Marsh couldn’t quite get complete separation from her fellow freshman with a second gold medal. Qualifying less than a second behind Shawnee Mission Northwest’s Fia Boshart in the 100 butterfly, Marsh saw the defending champion Cougar turn it on in the finals and win by more than two seconds with a 55.22 to Marsh’s 57.23.
 

SHAWNEE MISSION EAST RELAY BREAKS THROUGH FOR STATE TITLE AS LANCERS FINISH RUNNER-UP IN TEAM STANDINGS

For the last two seasons, Shawnee Mission East had been close. 

The Lancers stood on the podium with third-place state finishes in the 200-yard freestyle relay, but the top step the event remained just out of reach. 

On Saturday, Shawnee Mission East broke through at the Class 6A State Swim and Dive Championships, capturing the state title in the 200 freestyle relay to highlight a memorable runner-up team finish. 

The quartet of junior CoCo Reiser, sophomore Darcy Kroening, senior Georgia Boyd and freshman Teni Oyetunji surged to the championship in 1 minute, 38.47 seconds, winning the event by more than a second after already posting the fastest qualifying time during Friday’s preliminaries. 

The victory stood as the lone state title for the Lancers on the day, but it proved to be one of the biggest moments of the meet for a program that has remained among the state’s elite for nearly two decades. 

Shawnee Mission East finished second in the team standings with 288.5 points, trailing only champion Blue Valley West (333 points). The finish continued a remarkable stretch of consistency for the Lancers, who haven’t placed outside the top three at state since 2009. 

“It was incredibly exciting,” East coach Chris Copeland said. “We were all incredibly happy and proud to win the 200 free relay.” 

Getting the winning combination together, however, wasn’t simple. 

Copeland said East had several viable options for the relay, making lineup decisions one of the more difficult parts of preparing for the state meet. 

“I could have confidently utilized seven different athletes,” Copeland said. “Our final decision was based on attendance.” 

The final group proved to be the perfect mix of experience and emerging talent. 

Boyd, the lone senior in the relay, provided veteran leadership after swimming on the event all four years of high school. Reiser and Kroening — both returning contributors — delivered strong performances again on the state stage, while Oyetunji, a freshman, anchored the relay and helped seal the title. 

“Senior Georgia Boyd has been on the relay all four years,” Copeland said. “Junior Coco Reiser has been working hard and performs well at state — as does sophomore Darcy Kroening. It is also Darcy’s second year on that relay. Freshman Teni Oyetunji was anchor and consistent with starts and times.” 

The relay title capped another standout season for Shawnee Mission East and Copeland, who was named the 2026 Class 6A Coach of the Year following the meet. 

 
CLASS 6A ALL-STATE TEAMS
 
First team
 
Libby Barney, sr., Olathe East; Hayden Benbow, fr., Blue Valley West; Evie Boshart, fr., Shawnee Mission Northwest; Fia Boshart, jr., Shawnee Mission Northwest; Katharine Costello, so., Olathe East; Maggie Dahl, sr., Blue Valley Northwest; Irene Gettya, jr., Olathe East; Ella Marsh, fr., Free State; Angela McCoy, sr., Olathe Northwest; Anya Pivonka, fr., Blue Valley West; Abby Stidham-Ebberts, jr., Mill Valley; Amber Stringer, fr., Blue Valley West; Sasha Weiner, fr., Blue Valley West.
 
Second team
 
Kaylonie Amphone-Suh, fr., Wichita East; Avery Johnson, so., Blue Valley West; Natalie Jones, sr., Shawnee Mission East; Eliza Killough, sr., Olathe West; Jordan Kleeman, sr., Wichita Est; Helena Mattes, jr., Free State; Siggi Mattes, fr., Free State; Liddy McCoy, so., Blue Valley North; Avery Metcalf, sr., Olathe North; Teni Oyetunji, fr., Shawnee Mission East; Ridlee Parkhurst, jr., Derby; June Schmidt, sr., Wichita East; Paige Sears, sr., Blue Valley North.
 
Swimmer of the meet – Maggie Dahl, Blue Valley Northwest and Irene Gettya, Olathe East
 
Coach of the year – Chris Copeland, Shawnee Mission East