Josh Johnson will be the only Marlboro swimmer at the New York State swimming and diving championships for the second straight season.

This time he’ll be going to the state meet in two events, competing in both the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard butterfly starting Friday at Ithaca College.

He described the experience at the state meet last year as a “fever dream, sort of.” Spending two days in Ithaca, he spent about two minutes in the pool, competitively, competing only in the 100-yard butterfly.

He swam a 52.55 in the preliminaries at last year’s state meet, and swam a 53.15 during the finals, finishing 25th in the combined Federation competition and 18th among NYSPHSAA swimmers. The Federation competition also includes the New York State Catholic High School Athletic Association and New York City’s Public School Athletic League.

Last year’s state meet was a bit of a revelation for him.

“There were a lot faster people there than I thought,” Johnson said.

Johnson was a double section 9 champion on Feb. 18 at Valley Central, winning both the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard butterfly. His best time of 51.45, an improvement over his state meet time from last year, is good enough to be ranked 17th in the state. He’s ranked 50th in the state in the 50-yard freestyle with a best time of 21.98. He’s separated from the top 27 by about half a second.

His goal for states this weekend is to qualify for the second day in both events. The top 27 Federation swimmers make three final swims on Saturday. The top 9 qualify for the A final, and the second nine qualify for the B final and the third nine compete in the C final.

Specifically, he wants to be in the A final in the 100-yard butterfly. Just getting to the finals in the 50-yard freestyle would be enough.

The swimming preliminaries begin Friday at 10 a.m. with the championship races, starting at 10 a.m. on Saturday.