Boyd’s Libby Vaughan earned the final state call-up in the girls 500 freestyle after finishing seventh (5:57.79) at the 4A Region I championships Jan. 31 at Andrews ISD Natatorium. She will compete for the fourth consecutive season at the 4A state swim meet Feb. 12-13 in San Antonio. MICAH MCCARTNEY | WCMESSENGER
Boyd senior Libby Vaughan was prepared to hang up her cap and goggles following last week’s regional meet. But a surprise phone call now puts her back in the pool for one final race.
Vaughan — who claimed state berths in her freshman, sophomore and junior campaigns — bought back a pair of top 10 finishes from the 4A Region I championships Jan. 31 at Andrews ISD Natatorium.
However, she was unaware that she had punched her ticket back to San Antonio for the fourth straight season until Wednesday afternoon after receiving word she had captured the 16th state call-up in the girls 500 freestyle.
“I was really hoping someone was going to scratch, but they had swam at every regional meet,” Vaughan said. “I didn’t know if that was going to be a possibility. I was hoping for the best, but I honestly thought that I was done. When they called me up to the office, I was just excited because I wanted one more chance to swim the 500.”
At regionals, Vaughan finished seventh in the event, posting a time of 5:57.79.
“I went into prelims ranked eighth, and I did a best time at regionals (5:53) during prelims, which put me in seventh,” Vaughan said. “I knew I needed to swim pretty much 5:50 or I wasn’t going to get to state, just because of how tough the competition got this year. I gave it all I had, and I was exhausted afterwards.”
The veteran Lady Jacket said preparing for regionals was a challenge due to limited pool time thanks to Winter Storm Fern’s travel impacts.
“I was pretty gassed after my prelims at regionals — I had only swam once that week because of the snow and ice,” Vaughan said. “That definitely played a role in how I preformed. I don’t normally perform by best at regionals, so I was in my head about that, too.”
Vaughan swam to a top finish in B finals in the 100 backstroke, clocking 1:12.12 for ninth.
“I missed A finals by about seven-hundreths of a second in prelims,” Vaughan said. “The 100 backstroke isn’t my favorite event, so a lot of my attention was on the 500 freestyle.”
Vaughan’s final state appearance will be her last school competition, electing not to pursue a collegiate swim career.
“There aren’t a lot of Division II or III swims schools near here, and I didn’t want to move far away from home,” she said. “I’ve been swimming for 11 years, so it’ll always be a part of who I am.”
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