The Albert Lea girls’ swim team wasn’t able to replicate its success at the Section 1A meet when it swam Friday in the Class A state meet at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center.

The Tigers cut a significant amount of time in the events that reached the state meet, but the team wasn’t able continue its recent string of finding faster times.

Albert Lea advanced the 200-yard medley relay, Galen Schulz in the 50 freestyle and Morgan Field in the 100 breaststroke to the state meet, but none were able to qualify for the finals.

The 200-medley relay of Kemma Bergland, Gracie Thomas, Galen Schulz and Amy Horejsi cut five seconds off its time just to reach the state meet but finished 26th in the event at the state meet. The team’s time of 1 minute, 58.29 seconds was the third-fastest time of the season for the relay, but it wasn’t near fast enough to advance.

“I thought we were a little flat today,” said Tigers head coach Jon Schmitz. “There’s no doubt about that.”

Bergland led out with a lifetime best split on her backstroke but the relay wasn’t able to find the other lifetime bests like it had at the section meet.

Schulz had a chance to make it through to the finals based on her section swim time, but came up short, swimming a time of 25.51 seconds in the 50 freestyle to finish 22nd.

Field, who was making her first state meet, had to wait most of the day for her swim in the 100 breaststroke and finished 25th in the event with a time of 1:12.13.

Schmitz said the team will look at the meet as a learning experience for the coming years. Albert Lea graduates six seniors this season, including captains Thomas and Kim Nelson, who was an alternate for the relay team, but return a nucleus with state meet experience. Schulz and Field are sophomores while Bergland is a freshman and Horejsi a junior. Whitney Rasmussen was also an alternate for the relay team and made the trip to the state meet.

“We’ve got some really good young kids that are going to join the team next year,” Schmitz said. “We want to keep improving like we’re doing.”

The team made a drastic improvement in a short amount of time this season and Schmitz said the team was fortunate to get the events to state that they did.

“We’ve come a long, long way,” Schmitz said. “Both coach Erik (Johnson) and I are really proud of what these girls have done this season.”