Manhattan ? For Lawrence High senior John Armstrong, it was two days of a challenge accepted and mission accomplished.

Armstrong swam in back-to-back events, taking fourth in the 100-yard butterfly and sixth in the 100 freestyle, to help the Lions finish sixth in the boys state swimming and diving championships Saturday at KSU Natatorium.

“It was fun, though it was a challenge,” Armstrong said of double duty.

He swam the butterfly in 53.42 after setting a school record of 53.07 on Friday.

After accepting the fourth-place medal for that event, Armstrong stepped off the awards platform, walked to the other end of the pool and mounted the starting block for the 100 freestyle, finishing that race in 50.68.

“If I had done one or the other I could have done better,” said Armstrong, who earned a spot on the second-team all-state team for his efforts. “But I got a top-six finish in both events, so that was perfect.”

LHS sophomore diver John Gatti was the top placer for the Lions, scoring 391.45 points for a third-place finish.

“I was hoping for a first or a second, but not everything works out the way you want,” Gatti said, adding that it was one poor dive in preliminaries that hurt his chances.

The Lions’ Jonathan Legler, who swam a personal-best time of 1:50.45 in preliminaries, finished the 200 freestyle in 1:51.90 for eighth place.

“I swam the race of my life yesterday,” Legler said after Saturday’s final, adding that perhaps fatigue or a slight case of nerves could have affected his time.

Legler also swam eighth in the 500 freestyle with a time of 5:08.03. He said, however, the highlight of the day was the fourth-place finish of the 400 freestyle relay team in a season-best time of 3:25.07.

Legler was joined in that event by Armstrong, Anthony Portela and Elliot Lauxman. The same foursome also finished seventh in the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1:34.99.

Blue Valley North won the meet with 285 points. LHS had 130 points.

“It was awesome, I am very excited,” LHS coach Alicia Jackson said. “Last year we finished 15th, so that is a great improvement.”

Free State finished with 26 points, good for 22nd place in the 34-team event.

The top placer for the Firebirds was sophomore Alex Brunfeldt, who took sixth in the 500 freestyle in 4:59.53.

“I wanted to do considerably better,” said Brunfeldt, who swam two seconds faster in the preliminaries.

He was happier with his personal-best time of 1:50.28 in the 200 freestyle, winning his heat and earning a ninth-place finish.

“That felt good,” Brunfeldt said. “That was two seconds under my best time.”

Sophomore David Adams was 13th in the 500 freestyle, being clocked at a personal-best 5:12.39.

“That was a big goal,” Adams said. “I wanted to better my time and I did it.”

Added FSHS coach Annette McDonald, “I am very satisfied. We are a young team, we had two swimmers in the finals and they swam very well. It has been a great season.”