Collson makes the finals in the 50 freestyle at state meet

The St. Helens Lions sent three relay teams to the 5A state swim meet last week, and one individual in two events.

Andrew Collson came home with the highest placement for the squad.

Collson, a junior, took fourth in the 50 free. While he didn’t best his second-place district time, he did improve from the qualifying round to the finals. He was six-tenths of a second out of third, but less than a second out of first.

In the 100 free, Collson was quite a bit slower than at district. He swam a 50.91 in the prelims, and that would have gotten him into sixth place if he’d duplicated it.

The boys had two relay teams finish 11th. The boys’ medley relay team finished ahead of Cleveland but was over a second behind Sherwood. However, they were several seconds ahead of their third-place-in-district time. In the 400, the boys’ relay team was a couple of seconds behind their time from district.

The girls were about a second behind their second-place district time in 4:07.89, finishing 12th overall, more than a second behind Marist.

St. Helens results:

Boys

200 Medley Relay—11) St. Helens (Cameron Lein, Jacob Zartman, Jonathan Prevish, Andrew Collson), 1:51.24. 50 Free—4) Andrew Collson, 22.84. 100 Free—9) Collson, 51.30. 400 Free Relay—11) St. Helens (Devon Brady, Zack Kessinger, Lein, Andrew Collson), 3:46.58.

Girls

400 Free Relay—12) St. Helens (Emily Spears, Jackie Prevish, Patience Marshall, Brook Hopkins), 1:02.52.