It’s not quite the volume as it was one year ago, but the Amarillo High boys still managed to make a major mark at the Region I-5A swim meet at Lubbock’s Pete Ragus Aquatics Center on Saturday.
Amarillo High finished second in the team standings in winning two events. Another second-place finish gave AHS three entries for the state meet two weeks from now in Austin.
Just like last year, junior Alec Purdy qualified for state in three events. Last year he made it in two individual events and as part of a relay, but this year it was the other way around.
Purdy qualified as an individual by winning the 100-yard butterfly in a time of 50.25 seconds, which earned him the No. 4 seed in the state meet among automatic qualifiers. He’s only .24 seconds behind the top seed.
Amarillo High also qualified for state in a pair of relay events, both of which also featured Purdy. In the 200 medley relay, Purdy combined with Bradley Bontrager, Wyatt Willburn and Lance Dykhouse to take home gold in a time of 1:39.13, over three seconds ahead of second-place El Paso.
Purdy, Dykhouse, Wilburn and James Drozell finished the day with a silver medal in the 400 freestyle relay. The top two finishers in each event qualify for the state meet.
Last year, Amarillo High’s boys qualified in four events.
In the team standings, AHS finished with 273, good for second place. That was well behind Lubbock High with 391 points.