Horejsi leads Tigers at state prelims

Published 1:26 pm Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Lindsey Horejsi of Albert Lea swims the backstroke portion of the 200-yard individual medley Tuesday at the Class A state swimming preliminaries at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center in Minneapolis. Horejsi set her first of two state records in the event with a time of 2:02.55. — Micah Bader/Albert Lea Tribune

Lindsey Horejsi of Albert Lea swims the backstroke portion of the 200-yard individual medley Tuesday at the Class A state swimming preliminaries at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center in Minneapolis. — Micah Bader/Albert Lea Tribune

MINNEAPOLIS — Albert Lea’s Lindsey Horejsi made history again at the girls’ Class A state swimming meet Tuesday at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center.

To go along with her 100-yard breaststroke state record from last year (1:00.16), Horejsi made waves in the 200-yard individual medley this year in preliminaries. Her time was 2:02.55, which beat the old Class A state record of 2:03.65 set in 2010 by Monticello’s Caley Oquist.

“Lindsey’s 200 IM was pretty special,” said Albert Lea head coach Jon Schmitz. “She was stroking that out, and she’s definitely going to go faster than that tomorrow (in the finals). She wants the all-time record.”

Email newsletter signup

To do that, Horejsi needs to cut 1.18 seconds off her time. She already shaved more than three seconds off her seed time to edge Visitation’s Abbie Dolan by 0.46 seconds.

“I was really surprised by that one,” Horejsi said. “I was just trying to make it back for finals. I turned around and looked at the board, and I couldn’t believe I actually had that time.”

In the 100-yard breaststroke, Horejsi took the No. 1 seed into finals as well with a time of 1:00.24. She was able to compete with her teammate Ahnika Jensen just two lanes over. Jensen was in lane two; Horejsi in lane four.

“We encouraged each other before the race, and we pumped each other up, so that was nice,” Horejsi said.

Horejsi’s time was only 0.08 seconds slower than her state record time, and she said it wasn’t a flawless race and there was room for improvement.

“On the third wall, I was wrong, and when I finished, I jammed,” she said. “I can look at that and make it better for tomorrow.”

Jensen made the cut for finals to be in the consolation heat of the event by taking 16th place (1:09.83).

Anna Anderson qualified for finals in the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle races. Her time of 53.28 seconds was good enough for sixth place, which gave her a slot in the championship heat on Wednesday. She was one place away from the championship heat in the 50-yard freestyle, where she tied for ninth place in 24.57 to make the consolation heat. The top 16 swimmers qualified for finals. The top eight swimmers participate in the championship heat, and the next eight participate in the consolation heat.

“Anna — making it to the medal stand in two events — that’s really good,” Schmitz said. “Overall, it was a strong performance.”

The Tigers also qualified for finals in two of three relays. The team of Bailey Sandon, Horejsi, Jensen and Andersen took second place in the 200-yard medley relay (1:47.46), and the team of Andersen, Jensen, Haley Simon and Horejsi took third in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:39.05). The team of Simon, Sara Rasmussen, Emily Taylor and Sandon took 19th place in the 400-yard freestyle relay (3:48.58).

The girls’ Class A state swimming finals will be at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center at noon Wednesday.

Albert Lea results:

200-yard medley relay: Bailey Sandon, Lindsey Horejsi, Ahnika Jensen and Anna Andersen (second, 1:47.46)

200-yard individual medley: Lindsey Horejsi (first, 2:02.55)

50-yard freestyle: Anna Andersen (ninth, 24.57)

100-yard freestyle: Anna Andersen (sixth, 53.28)

200-yard freestyle relay: Anna Andersen, Ahnika Jensen, Haley Simon and Lindsey Horejsi (third, 1:39.05)

100-yard breaststroke: Lindsey Horejsi (first, 1:00.24); Ahnika Jensen (16th, 1:09.83)

400-yard freestyle relay: Haley Simon, Sara Rasmussen, Emily Taylor and Bailey Sandon (19th, 3:48.58)