Albert Lea girls’ swim team to compete in 8 different events Friday

ROCHESTER — The Albert Lea swim team hit the road Wednesday afternoon for the preliminary rounds of the section swim meet in Rochester. Out of the 11 swimming events, the Tigers will have participants in the championship finals in five events and participants in consolation finals in three events.

The first race of the day was the 200-yard medley relay, featuring the team of freshman Jaeda Koziolek, junior Emily Taylor and seniors Natalie Nefzger and Lydia Boorsma. The team took second place in its heat and fifth place overall, earning the Tigers their first spot of the day in the championship finals. The girls finished the race with a time of 1:57.00.

The next event Albert Lea was able to take to the championship finals was the 200-yard individual medley. Koziolek would finish second among 35 swimmers with a time of 2:16.93.

Taylor was the next swimmer to make it to the finals of an individual event. She placed seventh in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 25.36. All of the swimmers who made it to the finals were separated by less than one second.

Albert Lea missed the cut to make it to the finals of the 200-yard freestyle relay. The team of seniors Jill Peterson, Lexie Simon, Emma Grossman and Lauren Bizjak took ninth place with a time of 1:52.35, missing the cut by .97 of a second. They will compete in the consolation race on Friday.

The Tigers got two swimmers qualified in the 100-yard backstroke. Koziolek racked up her third finals appearance by qualifying in first place with a time of 1:00.33. Boorsma qualified for the consolation race with her 10th-place finish and time of 1:05.57.

Taylor piled on another individual finals appearance with her second-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke. She finished with a time of 1:09.91.

Albert Lea would come up just short again of another relay final, edged out by the blink of an eye. The team of Koziolek, Boorsma, Nafzger and Taylor finished behind Austin’s squad by just .11 of a second, putting them in the consolation finals with a time of 3:65.97.

The Tigers who qualified for the consolation and championship finals will be back in Rochester on Friday. The meet starts at noon at Rochester Recreation Center and Pool.