Weisz set for busy Saturday

So far so good for Little Falls sophomore Whitney Weisz.

The Flyers swimmer advanced to both championship heats in the 50- and 100-yard freestyles at Friday's Class 1A state swimming prelims at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center.

Weisz began the day with a seventh-place time of 24.29 in the 50 free. It's a new school record, which Weisz has been setting on a regular basis lately at most meets.

She's seeded seventh for Saturday's final. Fergus Falls' Heidi Busack is seeded first after Friday's 23.61.

Busack and Weisz will square off again in the 100 free as the Otters junior posted the top prelim time of 52.06. Just behind her in third was Weisz with a school-record time of 52.42. That's an improvement from her Section 6-1A championship time of 52.64.

"She had a really nice drop in time," said Flyers head coach Tim Corbett. "She's seeded third, but will swim right next to Heidi Brusack in the finals. That will be a nice race as those two go at it again just like in the conference meet.

"With the 50 anything can happen. You can go from eighth to first in a blink of an eye it's just so fast."

The Flyers' 200-free relay won't get a chance to improve on last year's eighth-place finish as it failed to make Saturday's championship heat. Little Falls will swim in the consolation heat Saturday after swimming a 1:42.27 to be seeded 10th behind St. Peter, which swam a 1:42.00.

"The 200 free qualified 10th," said Corbett. "We would have liked to have been in the top eight, but it would have taken a school record to get into the championship heat. We did swim a nice time."

The top eight swimmers and relay teams compete in the championship heat, while the next eight swimmers or teams compete in the consolation heat on Saturday.

The Flyers' 400 free relay won't compete in either as it was disqualified. Corbett said regardless, it would have been tough to qualify in the top 16.

"We swam a really good time, but we had to make it as fast as we possibly could," Corbett said. "Even if we hadn't DQ'd we would have been three-tenths of a second out of the top 16. We tried for it, but there were some nice times."

Sartell freshman Marissa Wood set Class 1A state records in the 200 and 500 freestyles and anchored Sartell's 200 and 400 free relays, which also set Class 1A records.

Wood swam a 1:50.88 in the 200 free shattering her seed time of 1:55.62. In the 500 she swam a 4:56.20 beating her seed time of 5 :09.05. Sartell's 200 free relay went 1:36.76, an improvement of their seed time of 1:37.45. The 400 free was seeded at 3:39.07, but went 3:34.62 to set the new record.

Staples-Motley eighth-grader Jaelin Beachy swam to a 22nd-place 1:11.44 in the 100 breaststroke. She topped her section time of 1:11.57, but will not swim in Saturday's finals.

Class 1A prelim swim results

200 medley relay: 1-Breck 1:49.26

200 freestyle: 1-Marisa Wood (Sartell) 1:50.88

200 individual medley: 1-Audrey Kumm (Hutchinson) 2:07.66

50 freestyle: 1-Heidi Busack (Fergus Falls) 23.61, 7-Whitney Weisz (LF) 24.29

100 butterfly: 1-Melissa Paakh (Detroit Lakes) 56.47

100 freestyle: 1-Busack (FF) 52.06, 3-Weisz (LF) 52.42

500 freestyle: 1-Wood (Sartell) 4:56.20

200 freestyle relay 1-Sartell 1:36.76, 10-Little Falls 1:42.27

100 backstroke: 1-Taylor Foster (Breck) 58.10

100 breaststroke: 1-Megan Ostrom (St. Louis Park) 1:05.97, 22-Jaelin Beachy (SM/V/WDC) 1:11.44

400 freestyle relay: 1-Sartell (3:34.62), Little Falls DQ

JEREMY MILLSOP may be reached at jeremy.millsop@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5856.