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WILLMAR -- Finley Pelz placed fifth in the 500-yard freestyle at the Section 3A swim and dive championships on Saturday, qualifying the Marshall freshman for the Class A state meet for the third consecutive season.
Marshall finished sixth out of 10 teams in the event with a score of 158.5, putting them 15.5 points back of fifth-place Watertown-Mayer and 15.5 points ahead of seventh-place Dassel-Cokato.
Orono won the meet with 510 points, followed by Westonka/Holy Family at 426.5 and Delano at 330.
Pelz finished the 500-yard freestyle in 5:24.90, giving her the final spot out of the section for the state meet by nine seconds. Westonka's Laney Hendrickson won the event at 5:08.62, followed by Orono's lola Schottler at 5:14.99, Westonka's Charlotte Lake at 5:23.28 and Delano's Maddy Mays at 5:24.74.
Marshall's Alex Brown also placed ninth in the event at 5:45.00.
Pelz and Hays were the only underclassmen to qualify for state in the event as a freshman and eighth grader, respectively.
Pelz was also just shy of a second state qualification in the 100-yard butterfly, finishing fifth at 1:02.07. Fourth-place Ileana Berg was the final qualifier out of the section in fourth at 59.79.
Autumn Deutz placed sixth in the 50-yard freestyle for Marshall at 25.69, leaving her 0.83 seconds behind the final state qualifier in the event. The senior Tiger also placed eighth in the one-meter dive with a score of 307.80.
The Tigers had a pair of finalists in the 100-yard breaststroke, with Aaliyah Podratz placing 12th at 1:16.21 and Brown finishing 14th at 1:17.11.
Grace Rokeh placed 12th in the 200-yard freestyle at 2:09.96 while Tatum Lewis placed 13th in the 100-yard backstroke at 1:08.83.
Rokeh, Podratz, Pelz and Deutz placed fifth in the 400-yard freestyle relay at 3:55.47, with Rokeh, Pelz and Deutz joining Leah Hybbert in the 200-yard freestyle relay for a sixth-place finish at 1:44.74. The Tigers' 200-yard medley relay team of Lewis, Podratz, Hailey Larsen and Hybbert also placed eighth at 2:03.13.
Pelz will continue her season at the state swim and dive championships on Nov. 14 atthe University of Minnesota's Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center in Minneapolis. Class A swim preliminaries will begin at noon with the swim and dive finals slated for Saturday at the same time.