The Perham girls swmming and diving team made history
Saturday in Detroit Lakes at the Section 8A Championship Meet. The Lady Jackets will be sending
multiple swimmers to State for the 1st time as they set 7 new school records.
The girls had a great night, Perham head coach Sheri
Ressler said. I could not be any prouder
of these record breaking, history making girls!
Ressler topped off the honors by being awarded the Section
8A Coach of the Year, as Perham had their highest team finish, 3rd (329
points).
Bemidji won the Section 8A team title with 426.5
points. Park Rapids was the
runner-up with 400.
The Jackets 200 medley relay team of Bailey Meyer, Kelsey Kratzke, Sam Salathe, and Natalie Murphy
qualified for State, making the qualifying time with a school record of
1:55.29. That was good for 3rd
place at Sections.
Kratzke would later qualify for her 3rd State Meet by
hitting the qualifying standard in the 100 breaststroke. Her time of 1:09.14 was good for 3rd
place, and a new school record.
Only the 1st place relay team (along with time
qualifiers) advance to State. The top 2 individuals in each event (plus time
qualifiers), and the top-4 divers will also advance to the Class A State Meet,
which will be November 17 19 at the U of M Aquatic Center in
Minneapolis.
Last year at State, Kratzke finished 24th out of 28 swimmers
in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:11.94. She had qualified for
State with a time of 1:10.59 at the Section 8A Meet last year.
Kratzke finished 22nd at State as a freshman in 2008 with a
time of 1:12.00. In 2009, she just missed making the B Finals by finishing
18th with a time of 1:10.30.
Kratzke also finished 5th in the 200 I.M. with a
time of 2:25.90. Jill Burns finished
8th (2:29.42), followed by, Lexi Richter (11th, 2:32.97) and Laine Miller (13th, 2:33.60).
Rylie Rothmeyer just
missed advancing to State in a pair of events. She set a new school record in the 200 freestyle with her
time of 2:05.37, which was good for 3rd place. Jackie
Hanson finished 5th (2:09.96)
and Brittany Roberts finished 8th
(2:14.60) in the 200 free.
Rothmeyer also finished 3rd in the 500 free with
a time of 5:34.17. She had the top time in the prelims with a 5:34.03 to break
her own school record. Burns was
right behind in 4th place (5:35.09). Hanson finished 9th
(5:57.57) and Miller finished 13th (6:14.88) in the 500 free.
Another near-miss for an individual State berth was
Meyer. She finished 3rd
in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:07.50, which was good for a school
record. 15.
Roberts finished 15th with a time of 1:12.79 in the B Finals.
Another individual record was set by Murphy in the 100
freestyle. She finished in 5th
place with a time of 56.85. Close
behind was Salathe in 6th place (57.74).
A pair of relay records were also broken.
The 200 freestyle relay team of Murphy, Kratzke, Rothmeyer
and Salathe had a time of 1:46.25.
The team of Murphy, Rothmeyer, Arneri and Salathe set a new mark in the
400 free relay with a 3:51.50.
Both teams finished in 3rd place in the 8A
Finals.
With 7 new school records set Saturday, that makes a total
of 14 record broke in 2 days at the 8A Meet.
We have broken every record this year except the 50 free
and diving, Ressler added.
Burns, Richter, Rothmeyer, Arneri, Beth Ingebrand and
manager Shelby Seifert will accompany the qualifying swimmers to State.
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