Four Austin swimmers advanced to Saturday’s round at the Class ‘A’ state swimming and diving meet at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center in Minneapolis Friday.

Austin junior Averi Splinter reached the 100-yard butterfly finals and the 200-yard medley relay team of Brooke Johnson, Kelli Bednar, Averi Splinter and Helen Heimark advanced to the consolation round.

Johnson, a junior, also reached the consolation round in the 100-yard backstroke, when she finished 13th with a time of 1:03.15. Taylor Faoster of Breck had the best prelim time with a 58.10.

The meet continues Saturday at noon in Minneapolis.

Splinter, a junior, took eighth in the prelims and she reached the medal round by six-tenths of a second as she swam the 100-butterfly with a time of 1:00.36. Six of the swimmers who advanced, swam the race in under a minute.

Melissa Paakh of Detroit Lakes had the best preliminary time at 56.47 seconds.

It is the first time Splinter, who has made it to state five times, will swim in the finals at state.

Austin’s 200-medley relay team finished 10th in the preliminaries with a time of 1:54.02 and it missed advancing to the medal round by less then four-tenths of a second.

Breck had the fastest preliminary time at 1:49.26.

Austin’s 200-yard freestyle relay team of Splinter, Bednar, Lauren Edwards, and Heimark took 22nd in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:02.98 and she was 23rd in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:36.80.

Sartell-St. Stephens freshman Marisa Wood set Class ‘A’ state records in the 200-freestyle (1:50.88) and the 500-yard freestyle (4:56.20) in the prelims.