The girls swim team sent freshman Carli Buchanan to the state meet, where she swam the 100-yard butterfly on Feb. 21. Although she did not rank in the top 16 during preliminaries to make it to finals, she finished eight places before her seed spot with a new personal best time of 1:02.32.

“I was happy I did so well,” Buchanan said. “Overall, I feel like I couldn’t have done any better.”

The team’s coach, Mrs. Jessica Graslie, was proud of Buchanan’s accomplishment and the hard work she put in to get to the state level.

“Carli is a really strong swimmer all around and was very determined to go to state,” Coach Graslie said. “I believe swimming year round on a club team gave Carli the added advantage.”

A week before the state meet, the swim team finished third at the GAC competition, a boost from its sixth place finish at the conference meet last year. The girls and coaches were excited with this ranking to end the regular season.

“I could not be happier with how the girls performed this season. They all pushed through the crazy season we had and gave it their all,” Coach Graslie said. “Finishing third overall as a team at GACs was so exciting and well deserved.”

Next year, Coach Graslie looks forward to keeping the team’s third place rank, getting more swimmers to state, and having less snow days to interrupt their season. Buchanan also hopes to continue her success next year and to help her teammates succeed with her.

“I look forward to hopefully bringing more people with me to state next year,” Buchanan said.