Tyler Legacy High School made waves at the UIL Region 3-6A Championship on Saturday, as they qualified five swimmers in three separate events for the UIL 6A Swimming and Diving State Meet in Austin, slated for February 20 & 21 at the Lee & Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center.
The Red Raiders will send sophomore Madalyn Petty for the Girls 200 & 500-yard freestyle events and sophomore Ryan Mock for the 100-yard freestyle on the individual side. Juniors Fischer Dunnihoo and Tucker Martine, senior Alex Zheng, as well as Mock, will all compete in the 200-yard freestyle relay.
Petty is a defending state champion, winning the 500-yard freestyle as a freshman last season with a time of 4:45:05 to win a gold medal. At the 3-6A Championship, Petty finished in first place (4:47.76) in the 500-yard freestyle and took second place by a slim margin in the 200-yard freestyle, notching a personal-best time of 1:48.68.
“Madalyn has put a tremendous amount of work into defending her title in the 500 this year,” said Tyler Legacy Swim & Dive Head Coach Jason Petty. “She has made improvements in her speed for her second event, the 200-yard freestyle, where she went from ninth place last year to the third seed heading into the state meet this season.”
Mock has been a success this season and splashed in a personal-best time of 47.65 in the 100-yard freestyle at the 3-6A Championship. He was also a big part of the group that blazed to a 1:28.76 time in the 200-yard freestyle relay, taking first place.
“Ryan’s improvement since joining our program, especially in freestyle events, has been remarkable,” said Petty. “Having him be a part of our relays has helped him greatly in his individual events. The boys in our 200-yard freestyle relay group have worked hard, going back to this past summer. To get one of our relays to state and seeing them accomplish this goal has been so rewarding”.
Preliminary races will begin on Friday, February 20, in Austin at 3:30 p.m. On Saturday, Petty will swim first at 4:15 p.m. in the 200-yard freestyle, followed by her performance in the 500-yard freestyle at 5:35 p.m. She will be followed by Mock in the 100-yard freestyle at 5:40 p.m. before the 200-yard relay team of Dunnihoo, Martine, Mock, and Zheng at 6:20 p.m. The meet will be broadcast live on NFHS Network.
For more information, contact Reese Lannon at reese.lannon@tylerisd.org