BY NATHANIEL MATA | SPECIAL TO THE MONITOR
McAllen High junior Shaine Casas entered Day 2 of the UIL 6A State Swimming & Diving meet Saturday in Austin seeded second in two events and only narrowly missed out on state gold.
The Bulldogs junior dropped time in both the 200 yard individual medley and 100 butterfly, but he was not able to finish faster than the swimmers he was chasing, finishing second in both events.
He swam the 200 IM in 1:47.59, more than a second quicker than Friday’s 1:47.65.
The gold medal time of 1:47.06 was turned in by Austin Westlake’s Matthew Willenbring.
In the 100 butterfly, Casas’ final individual event, he finished just tenths of a second from first. The golden time was 47.64. The McAllen junior finished in 47.88.
McHi’s 200 freestyle relay finished 11th on Saturday with a time of 1:26.44, nearly a second quicker than Friday.
In 5A, Sharyland High 1-meter diver Sandra Valdez finished eighth overall with a score of 314.70.
Sharyland’s Luciano Farias-Ramirez improved two spots to finished 13th in the 100 butterfly. He finished in 52.45.