Royals sends eight swimmers to state

• Royal flush

Woodbury swimmers Mikayla Mayer, left, and Britta Sortland led their team to the Section 3AA title Friday in Richfield. Both Mayer and Sortland will compete in four event at the state meet. Staff photo by Patrick Johnson.
• Section champs

Woodbury Royals swimmers and divers posed with their trophy upon winning the team title in Section 3AA Nov. 12 in Richfield. Staff photo by Patrick Johnson.

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It was a District 833 family affair at the Section 3AA girls swimming and diving meet, held Nov. 10 and 12 at Cottage Grove and Richfield middle schools.

The Woodbury, East Ridge and Park girls swimming and diving teams all competed in the Section 3AA meet, with the three schools combining to fill 59 spots in the final swimming and diving events.

Woodbury led the way at the meet, winning the Section 3AA championship with 416 points, while sending eight swimmers and divers to state in eight events. East Ridge finished in third place in the nine-team section meet with 295 points, sending six swimmers and divers to state in three events. Park was unable to qualify a swimmer or diver to state, taking ninth place with 57 points.

For the Royals, swimmers Britta Sortland, Mikayla Mayer, Kasey Bosch, Cassie Cedarholm, Mara Miller and Marina Rizzo, along with divers Erin Kohlbeck and Emily Bonfig are going to the state meet.

Standouts Sortland and Mayer led the way for the Royals at the section meet. Sortland, a senior, and Mayer, a sophomore, each qualified for the state meet in four events. Sortland and Mayer took first and second place, respectively, in the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle races and helped the Royals’ 200-yard freestyle relay team reach state with a first place finish and the 400-yard freestyle relay team earn a state berth with a second-place finish.

Sortland and Mayer had times of 24.02 and 24.43, respectively, in the 50 free and times of 52.35 and 53.36, respectively, in the 100 free.

Bosch, a junior, reached state in the 100-yard breaststroke, beating the state qualifying time of 1:09.29 in the event with her third-place 1:09.06 finals time. Additionally, Cedarholm, a senior, reached state as part of the 200-yard and 400-yard relay team, Miller, a sophomore, reached state as a member of the 200-yard relay team and Rizzo, a sophomore, earned a state berth as part of the Royals’ 400-yard relay team. Woodbury’s time of 1:37.86 in the 200 free relay set a new Section 3AA and pool record in the event and its time of 3:36.23 in the 400 free relay was just back of first-place Cretin-Derham Hall’s section record of 3:33.33 in the event.

In the diving contest, all four state qualifiers out of Section 3AA are from south Washington County. East Ridge’s Jenna Karrow led the way with a first-place finish in the diving competition. Karrow, a sophomore, scored a 425.10 to earn the Section 3AA diving title. Additionally, Woodbury’s Kohlbeck, a senior, took second place with 401.95 points, Emily Bonfig, a junior, took third place with 390.75 points and Raptors’ senior Bailee Meyer finished in fourth place with a 363.35 score.

In all, seven of the eight divers that placed at the Section 3AA meet were out of District 833, with Woodbury senior Melissa Runquist and sophomore Lauren Puglisi taking fifth and sixth place, respectively and Park junior Alli Ramey earning seventh place.

For East Ridge, in addition to aforementioned Karrow and Meyer, Meredith Ubel, Alyssa Kong, Taylor Johnson and Melanie Rabino are going to the state meet.

Ubel, a freshman, qualified for state in the 100-yard butterfly with a second-place time of 59.98 and anchored the Raptors’ state qualifying 200-yard freestyle relay team — along with Kong, Johnson and Rabino — which finished third with a state-qualifying time of 1:41.60. Ubel was also fourth in the 50-yard freestyle, just .29 off the state cut time.

The Royals and Raptors had some other close calls as well. The schools’ 200-yard medley relay were each under one second off the state qualifying time in the event, taking third and fourth, respectively. Rabino, a junior at East Ridge, was less than two second off the state qualifying time with a fifth-place finish in the 200 freestyle. Johnson, an East Ridge freshman was less than two second off the state cut in the 200-yard IM. Kong, a senior at East Ridge was less than a second off the state qualifying time of 54.08 in the 100-yard freestyle and East Ridge junior Rachel Treadway was 2.5 seconds off the state qualifying time of 1:00.03 in the 100-yard butterfly. In the 100-yard breaststroke, Woodbury sophomore Kelsie Carter finished in fourth place with a time of 1:10.44, just over a second off the 1:09.29 cut time.

This year’s Class AA state meet will be held Nov. 18 to 20 at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center in Minneapolis.

At last year’s Class AA state meet, Woodbury finished in sixth place as a team. With the top eight finishers in each event garnering All-State honors, Sortland finished third in the 50 free and eighth in the 100 free, the Royals’ 400 free relay took sixth, and in diving, Kohlbeck took second place and Bonfig was sixth place.

Last year, the Raptors sent seven swimmers and divers to the Class A state meet in nine events taking third overall in the 11-team Section 1A championships. Karrow finished second overall in the diving competition and fellow diver Meyer earned fifth place, while Kong took sixth place in the 200-yard freestyle in the Raptors inaugural season.

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