Faribault Swimmers Place Seventh at State

The Faribault Falcons placed seventh at the Class A MSHSL Girls State Swim Meet at the University of Minnesota Aquatics Center.

The Falcons were one of only eight teams in Class A to score over 100 points.

Visitation of Mendota Heights edged Hutchinson by 6.5 points to capture their fifth straight title (247.5 to 241).  Delano was third with 183, Breck School fourth with 173, Sartell-St. Stephen tallied 161.5, Blake School 144.5 and Faribault had 139.5.

Other Big Nine schools finished like this, Mankato West 25th, Red Wing 30th, Northfield 32nd and Albert Lea 33rd.

Faribault jumped right of the gate amassing big points when their 200 Yard Medley Relay set an All American Consideration time of 1:45.69 and won the championship.

Freshman Verity Wray-Raabolle, senior Bre Bresnahan, sophomore Gesa Wilden and senior Megan Gehrke stood on the top podium to receive their first place medals.

Mankato West was 14th, Northfield 15th and Red Wing 16fth in the event.

Wilden is a foreign exchange student from Germany and ended up having the best day individually for Faribault with a 3rd place finish in the 50 Yard Freestyle and 4th place finish in the 100 Yard Butterfly to earn All-State status in both individual races in addition to the State Champion relay.

Wilden's time in the 50 Free was good enough for All-American consideration (23.55).  She swam a 57.24 100 Butterfly.  In both events her time dropped from the prelims to the finals

Megan Gehrke was 10th in the 50 Freestyle and 10th in the 100 Yard Freestyle.  Last year she placed 7th in each of those events.

Gehrke had the best time of her life in the preliminaries 24.34 and didn't make the final eight in the 50 Free.  So that tells you it was a fast field this year.

Her time in the preliminaries of the 100 Freee race was 53.16 and the finals 53.80, last year Gehrke's prelim time was 53.08 and final 53.58.

I know the girls really felt they had a chance to win the 200 Yard Freestyle Relay also even though they were seeded 4th.  They finished 5th with a time of 1:39.09 after swimming the event in 1:38.44 in the prelims.  The relay was led off by Bre Bresnahan, senior Malia Stone, Abby Larson and anchored by Megan Gehrke.

Bresnahan was second a year ago in the 100 Yard Breaststroke with a time of 1:05.60.

She finished 7th this year with a time of 1:06.43 in the finals after a preliminary time of 1:06.34.  Still All-State.

Abby Larson was 5th last year in the 200 Yard Freestyle and 7th in the 500 Yard Freestyle.  Larson finished 10th in both events this year.  Her times last year were 1:55.54 in the 200 Free and 5:16.87 in the 500 Free finals after swimming 1:55.24 and 5:13.11 in the prelims.

This year Larson swam a 1:56.83 final after posting a time of 1:56.65 in the preliminaries in the 200 Free and had a 5:22.57 preliminary time and 5:16.27 final in the 500 Free.

In fact her consolation final 500 time was better than two swimmers in the finals.  Had she been in the finals Larson would have placed 7th again.

Freshman Verity Wray-Raabolle was 16th in the 100 Yard Backstroke with a time of 1:00.69.  Her prelim time was 59.76.

Northfield Gator 8th grader Paige Steenblock was 16th in the 500 Yard Free wtih a 5:32.55 preliminary time and 5:33.68 consolation final swim.

The 200 Medley Relay team of sophomore Tatum Hauck, seventh grader Ella Anderson, sophomore Alice Zhang and senior Amy Miller placed 15th with a time of 1:53.24 after a 1:52.58 prelim time.

Most of the Northfield state swimmers have agreed to stop by Professional Pride Realty Wednesday to join us for our bi-weekly show about happenings in the community.