Packers advance just one swimmer at preliminaries

Staff

Originally published 04:17 p.m., November 21, 2008
Updated 04:17 p.m., November 21, 2008

Fergus Falls Daily Journal

Kelli Bednar of the Austin 200-yard medley relay team dives into the pool as her teammate Brooke Johnson finishes the first leg of the race during the Class 'A' state swimming preliminaries at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center Friday. Looking on are Austin swimmers Averi Splinter (left) and Helen Heimark.

Fergus Falls Daily Journal

Austin's Averi Splinter swims in the 100-yard butterfly preliminaries Friday in Minneapolis.

The Austin swimmers had a tough day at the Class ‘A’ state swimming and diving meet preliminaries Friday.

None of the athletes advanced to the finals and only Brooke Johnson advanced to the second day, as she came in at 16th place out of 25 swimmers to qualify for the consolation bracket.

Johnson, a sophomore, increased her Section 1A time by .16 seconds as she swam the event in 1:03.47. Johnson swam the first 100-yards in 30.3 seconds, and finished the homestretch in 33.17 seconds.

She will swim Saturday, but cannot medal since she wasn’t in the top eight. The best Johnson can finish is ninth.

Taylor Foster of Breck School had the best 100-yard backstroke time Friday at 57.80 seconds — which is the fastest time in Class ‘A’ history.

The Austin 200-yard medley relay team was less than seven-tenths of a second out of 13th place, but it failed to qualify for Saturday when it finished 18th out of 32 teams.

The team, which consists of Johnson, Kelli Bednar, Averi Splinter, and Helen Heimark, finished almost a full second slower than it did in the Section 1A meet as it had a time of 1:55.81.

Visitation set a Class ‘A’ record in the preliminaries with a time of 1:48.52.

Splinter finished 19th in the 100-yard butterfly and missed qualifying for Saturday’s consolation by over a second.

The sophomore swimmer finished with at time of 1:01.97 on Friday which was over a second higher than her Section 1A time.

Splinter has been to state four times and she finished 16th last season in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:04.00.

Johnson will swim on Saturday during the finals, which start at noon. The Packers will also have Courtney Fleming competing in diving. Fleming is currently fifth with three dives remaining.

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