Topeka ? The Free State High boys swimming team didn’t come home from this weekend’s state championship swim meet with any medals, but you never would have realized that based on the reaction of Firebirds coach Annette McDonald.

After watching her team of Brian Hatesohl, Spencer Flannigan, Julian Spangler and Chris Armstrong complete the 200-yard freestyle relay in 1 minute, 33 seconds, she raced along the edge of the Hummer Sports Complex’s pool and began spreading word of their milestone.

“That’s a new school record,” she animatedly said moments after the race ended.

McDonald said her team’s goal all year had been to set a school record, and to do it at state with everyone watching was the perfect scenario.

“It was fun out there,” she said. “They had that goal and worked really hard for it. We were rested, ready and focused.”

The mark broke the former Free State relay record by more than a second, which McDonald credited to her swimmers having perfect timing and swimming to the maximum of their abilities.

“For them to beat the record by more than a second was amazing,” she said. “Because it beat all the great swimmers we’ve had here.”

Overall, the Firebirds’ record run was good for 10th place – second in the consolation heat.

Still, Free State was thrilled with its performance – especially since the Firebirds managed to squeak by Lawrence High in the final team standings.

That moral victory, however, was in doubt until the Saturday’s final event.

After LHS swimmer Alex Boyer finished 12th in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:03, the Lions needed only a 14th-place finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay to overtake the Firebirds.

A false-start disqualification ruined Lawrence High’s chances.

“We don’t want to frame our whole season around beating Free State, but it kind of was a good example of how the whole season went,” LHS coach Ryan Adams said. “We swam hard and did everything right, we just couldn’t quite get the job done.”

Adams, though disappointed, has high hopes for next year.

“The good thing is we have all these guys coming back,” he said. “We have the taste in our mouths of being this close and some good momentum going into next year. I think we’re going to improve leaps and bounds. And I think we’ll do it on a team basis.”