The Albert Lea Tigers boys’ swimming and diving team advanced to the Section 1A finals Thursday in four events at Simley High School.

The top 16 finishers in each preliminary event advanced to Saturday’s finals with a shot at a state tournament berth.

The Tigers’ 200-yard medley relay team of Corbin Schultz, Sean Laurie, Preston Smith and Issac Olson placed ninth in 1 minute and 52.78 seconds — a drastic improvement of their section-seeding time of 1:57.11.

Smith squeaked into the 100-yard butterfly finals with a 15th-place finish in 1:02.23. Smith eged 17th-place Dan Hardgrave, of Simley, by .37 second.

In the 200-yard freestyle relay, the Tigers’ team of Larry Holcomb, Smith, Laurie and Andy Ehrhardt reached the section finals after placing ninth in 1:44.28, about a two-second improvement on their seed time.

The final Tigers’ section-final qualifier was the 400-yard freestyle relay team of Olson, Schultz, Ehrhardt and Holcomb. The four swimmers finished in 10th place in 3:55.05.

Olson just missed the final by finishing 17th in the 100-yard freestyle event. Olson was edged by Morgan Melton, of Faribault, by .19 second.

The section final qualifiers swam again Saturday at Simley High School.