Stuck in a regular-season rut, the Free State High girls swimmers are “bored” as they move toward the Sunflower League meet and the state tournament.

But Free State seemed focused Thursday, placing second in a quad at Lawrence High’s Knox Natatorium after a score of 355. Blue Valley North won convincingly, scoring 476, and Olathe South (285) and LHS (240) followed the Firebirds.

“We were hoping to give them more of a run for their money, but second place is still pretty good,” Free State coach Jama Crady said of Blue Valley North. “I was pretty happy with a couple of our swims.”

The Firebirds hadn’t competed in seven days, but a rigorous practice schedule has the team feeling fatigue. With only one regular-season meet remaining Monday,

Crady is ready to move on to the postseason.

“I think they are bored,” Free State coach Jama Crady said. “It’s a grind. There’s eight regular-season meets, and you get to a point where you’re swimming the same things over and over again every Tuesday and Thursday. They probably won’t be energized (until state).”

LHS coach Ryan Adams is dealing with the same lack-of-focus issues. Events such as the senior barbecue, skip day and this weekend’s prom have attracted the seniors’ attention.

“There’s tons of ‘Oh, I gotta go to practice,’ going on with all of the extra stuff that’s happening,” Adams said. “It’s been hard, but I think in the next week everyone will get excited, and it will start to change.”

As usual, Free State’s Ashley Robinson was the top swimmer, winning the 200-yard freestyle and then blowing away the field in the 500 free, winning by over 20 seconds. She also teamed with Sarah Clark, Becca Glass and Kelsi Mishler to win 200 free relay and almost caused an incredible come-from-behind victory in the 400 free relay

Mishler, the third Free State swimmer in the relay, cut a huge deficit down to about 12 to 15 feet during her 100 yards. Then Robinson, swimming the anchor leg, made up the rest of the difference, including eight feet in the final 25 meters. Free State lost by only two hundredths of a second and walked away with a hard-earned second-place finish.

“It was pretty scary, but with ‘Robby’ at the end we tend to come out smelling like a rose,” Mishler said. “Today, however, maybe not so much … it was a great race.”

The Sunflower League meet will be May 5-6 at LHS.