State girls swimming: Chaska/Chan sends two to finals

Chaska / Chanhassen had two individual entrants at the state Class 2A girls swimming preliminaries on Friday.

Both Storm Hawk swimmers will be back on Saturday.

Chaska /Chan senior Emma Gaulke-Janowski finished 13th in the 500 freestyle prelims at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center, with a time of 5:11.51.

Gaulke-Janowski will swim in the consolation heat of the 500 on Saturday, as the finals get under way at 6 p.m.

Things were a little up in the air for a while after Chaska /Chan senior Megan Knudson finished her 100 breaststroke race.

Knudson swam 1:08.48, and waited out two other breaststroke heats to find out if she made the finals.

She did with literally no time to spare, finishing 16th to secure the last spot in the finals consolation heat. Her swim edged out Burnsville senior Celcee Hew by .05.

The Storm Hawks started the state meet with a 200 medley relay race, finishing 23rd in 1:54.43 with an all-senior quartet of Lauren Johnson (backstroke), Knudson (breaststroke), Brooke Zhorne (butterfly) and Gaulke-Janowski (freestyle).