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Kalli Jo Olson knew she was going to have to put up a fast time to hang with the backstroke field at the state tournament last weekend.
She entered the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center as the 12th seed in the stacked event. She only qualified with fast time since she finished third in her section race.

In the prelims, Olson flew through the single lap in the 100 backstroke. She came oh-so-close to breaking her personal record. She fell just short, finishing in 1:00.98, 12 one-hundredths of a second off of her section career best.

But, Olson finished well in her heat, which was the second out of four, and was in fourth place with two heats to go.

She anxiously watched as the other two heats finished, and each time, the nerves built. By the time the fourth heat was done, Olson got dropped into the tough ninth spot. Finishing in ninth in the prelims allows a swimmer to compete on the second day, but in the B-Finals.
No matter how well she would be able to swim the next day, Olson wouldn’t make it onto the awards podium.

But, she had already bested three girls who had higher seed times than she,  by coming in ninth. Olson even topped Gabi Baldwin of Hill Murray, who won the section meet.

Olson got a chance to prove that race wasn’t a fluke, and she captialized on it, finishing in first place in the B-Finals, which is essentially ninth place in the state tournament.

Not only did she shave a bit of time from her prelims, she broke her personal record in the B-Finals race, coming in at 1:00.72, a few ticks faster than her section time.

She again beat Baldwin, who finished second in the B-Finals.

Although Olson just missed out on the podium, moving as high up as she did was quite an accomplishment, and with four girls who finished in front of her graduating this year, there is plenty of promise for the sophomore.

For Payton Nelson, her first trip to the state tournament was a tough one.

The sophomore diver had seen teammates compete before her at the meet, but to actually be on the diving board, executing twists and flips was a bit of a different experience.

She was seeded 20th coming in to the meet, but a few under-rotations and minor mistakes bumped her down just a tad, which was enough to push her into 24th place after prelims, which prevented her from moving on as the top 20 advance to the semis. After six dives, she had a score of 141.15, seven points away from Madi Molitor of Sartell in 20th place.

Of the 23 divers that finished in front of Nelson, 17 of them are juniors or seniors, which leaves a bright future for the Chisago Lakes sophomore as she continues to develop.

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