Girls swimming: Blaes goes six for eight in state prelims

The Burnsville girls swimming team went six for eight in the prelims of the Class AA state swim meet Nov. 20 at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center.

The Blaze had eight swims in the prelims and six earned second-day swims (top 16), which will be held Saturday, Nov. 21 at 6 p.m.

Burnsville was just two places away from going a perfect eight for eight. Seniors Chelcee Hew and Kelsey Griffin finished 17th in the 100-yard breaststroke and 200 freestyle, respectively.

Hew was seeded 20th in the breaststroke and improved on her seed time by nearly a second with a mark of 1 minute, 8.53 seconds. She was just five one hundredths of a second of the 16th-place finisher's time.

However, Hew is also the only Blaze who will swim in the finals Saturday (top eight). She qualified eighth in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:09.93, which was nearly two seconds better than her seed time (2:11.75).

Meanwhile, ninth-grader Anna Elling will swim in the consolation heat in both her individual events. She finished 13th in the 200 individual medley (2:10.95) and 16th in the 100 butterfly (1:00.05). Both Elling's time were slower than her seed times (2:10.09 and 59.38, respectively).

Griffin's 200 freestyle time was 1:57.15, which was slower than her seed time (1:56.42). However, she made up for it in the 500 freestyle, qualifying 14th with a time of 5:11.73. Her seed time was 5:13.23.

Both Burnsville relay teams qualified for the consolation heats Saturday.

The 200 freestyle relay of Griffin, Elling, senior Cassie Cox and junior Natalie Simon finished 13th (1:40.74), while the 400 freestyle team of Griffin, Hew, Cox and Simon also qualified 13th (3:39.44).

For complete state prelim results go to http://www.mshsl.org/mshsl/upload/MSHSL210756AASwimmingPrelimsResults.htm