Albert Lea swimmer takes 11th at state

Published 9:28 am Monday, March 3, 2014

Preston Smith of Albert Lea swims in the 100-yard butterfly in the Class A state swimming meet in Saturday. — Rocky Hulne/Albert Lea Tribune

Preston Smith of Albert Lea swims in the 100-yard butterfly in the Class A state swimming meet in Saturday. — Rocky Hulne/Albert Lea Tribune

Personal bests were set by both state qualifiers on the Albert Lea boys’ swimming team during the two-day Class A state meet at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center.

Preston Smith broke his previous personal best — 55.49 seconds in the 100-yard butterfly — during the consolation finals on Saturday by 1.54 seconds to take eleventh place. On Friday, he qualified for the race by taking 13th place in 54.59 seconds in the preliminary round.

Derek Wagner also qualified for the state meet. He swam a personal-best time of 57.93 at the Section 1A meet and broke that mark by 0.62 seconds to take 17th place Friday in the preliminaries. He was one place away from qualifying the consolation finals on Day 2.

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