Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall’s Finley Pelz starts a race during a dual girls swim and dive meet against Willmar on Sept. 3, 2024 at the Don Palm Natatorium in Marshall. Pelz competed in the Class A swim and dive state preliminaries on Friday, qualifying for today’s championship race.

MINNEAPOLIS — Freshman Finley Pelz represented the Marshall swim and dive team well at Friday’s Class A state meet preliminaries at the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center on Friday, placing 10th in the 500-yard freestyle to punch her ticket to the state championship today.

Pelz was seeded 18th heading into the meet but stepped up when it mattered most to keep her season alive. She swam a time of 5:22.34 in the event to move up eight spots in an event where only 16 of the 22 swimmers qualify for the final. She out-swam her seed time of 5:24.90 by more than two seconds.

Iris Provolny snagged the eighth and final spot in the first heat with a time of 5:16.39, while Benilde-St. Margaret’s Emma Rudoswky had the fastest time of the day at 5:02.83.

Pelz is one of three swimmers in their freshman season or younger to qualify for the final, along with Provolny and Delano eighth grader Maddy Mays, who placed 14th at 5:25.15.

The Class A finals will begin at noon today at the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center in Minneapolis.