The Sartell Sabre girls swimming-diving team placed third in the Class A state competition last week.
For the past five years, the team has done exceedingly well in state competition. In 2009 and 2011, the girls won first at state. In 2012, they earned second place. This year was just one of many third-place finishes, the others being in 1999, 2001, 2008 and 2010.
Visitation won the state Class A meet with 300 points. Mankato West was second with 168 points. Sartell earned 161 points. There were 39 teams competing for the Class A state title this season, including teams in this area from St. Cloud Apollo, Cold Spring Rocori, Sauk Rapids and Becker.
None of the Sartell divers qualified for the finals.
The Sartell team’s outstanding performances at the state meet include the following: 400-yard freestyle relay, third place, team members Anna Ellis, Gaby Hagen, Marena Kouba and Paige Pawlenty, 3:37.37; 200-yard freestyle relay, fourth place, team members Hagen, Lindsey Martens, Pawlenty and Jennifer Thompson, 1:38.33; 100-yard backstroke, second place: Ellis, 57:13. seventh place: Kouba, 1:00:25; 200-yard freestyle, 11th place, Pawlenty, 1:59.78; 200-yard individual medley, 13th place, Hagen, 2:16.38; 100-yard butterfly, 13th place, Hagen, 1:00.22; 100-yard freestyle, seventh place, Thompson,53:52.8; and 100-yard breaststroke, 10th place, Martens, 1:07.55.
