Senior Emily Taylor was the lone Tiger standing on the final day of the 2018 girls’ state swim and dive meet on Friday afternoon.

While Taylor improved upon her prelim time, she finished the 100-yard breaststroke in 11th place to end her high school swimming career.

Taylor earned a spot in the consolation final after swimming a 1:08.91 on Thursday afternoon, just missing the cut to get into the championship final by .48 seconds.

Seeded ninth overall and first in the consolation final after the prelims, Taylor improved on her time, shaving .03 seconds off to finish the race with a time of 1:08.88 and in 11th place.

Taylor finishes her Tigers career as one of the best to come through the program. Head coach David Voller talked about what it was like for him to coach her for the two years he has been at Albert Lea.

“Emily has always been very coachable and has a drive to improve,” Voller said. “She seeks coaching out and takes coaching and applies it right away.  She gives great effort every practice and has been a good leader and mentor to younger swimmers.  Emily also works well with the younger girls by working with them and helping to teach them new swims or demonstrate in the water.  Its been a blessing working with her the past two years.”

Taylor has committed to continue her swim career at Minnesota State University in fall 2019.

Sophomore Jaeda Koziolek also swam at the state meet swimming in the 100-yard breaststroke. She missed out on a consolation finals appearance by .05 seconds.

“It was a great season overall with the girls,” Voller said. “We replaced a large group of seniors we lost with underclassmen and look forward to building our team.  It was fun watching the girls develop and grow throughout the year.  We have a large group of tlented seventh and ninth graders that have us looking forward to next year.  We have a good young team with building blocks for the future.  We’re an up and coming team.”