CHS swimmers 2nd, 3rd at Andrews

ANDREWS, Texas – For the first time this season, the Clovis High boys swimming team came up short in the final standings.

The Wildcats finished third with 463 points in the Andrews Invitational on Friday and Saturday, trailing El Paso High (987 ½) and the host Mustangs (614) in a 15-team field of otherwise-all-Texas schools.

The Wildcats had won their previous five outings. Meantime, the Lady Wildcats finished second (593) to El Paso High (1,028) out of 17 squads, and they now have three wins and three runnerup finishes for the season.

Still, co-coach Vincent de Maio said the Cats and Lady Cats got pretty much just what they needed out of the event.

“It was a good meet,” he said. “El Paso has a large boys team, but they’re also very good.”

Neither Clovis squad managed to win an event, but both sides had three second-place showings. In the 500 freestyle, junior Porter Kidd’s time of 5 minutes, 5.82 seconds led a 2-4-8 showing for the boys while sophomore Julia Spears swam 5:31.33 to pace a 2-6-7 showing for the girls.

Over the holiday break, de Maio said his team had been working hard and came in a bit tired.

“I was really happy,” he assessed of the meet. “We had a lot of improved times. When you consider that we were coming off two weeks of two-a-days (practice), I think we’re heading in the right direction.”

The boys posted four new state-qualifying marks, including junior Kriday Andiboina in the 200 individual medley (2:14.73), junior David Reeb in the 500 freestyle (5:17.84) and senior Thomas Palla and junior Ricky Southern on individual legs of relays – Palla in the 400 freestyle relay and Southern in the 200 medley relay.

“Across the board, I thought we swam well,” de Maio said. “I think everybody exceeded what we would’ve expected coming off two-a-days.”

The Cats and Lady Cats return to action on Saturday in the Albuquerque Academy Invite.