By: Nick Gerhardt, South Washington County Bulletin

East Ridge’s Meredith Ubel, in her second state meet, finished 10th in the 100-yard butterfly. Ubel set a personal best time by a tenth of second and swam a time that she hadn’t neared for two years. Ubel finished the event in 57.87 seconds and took second in the consolation finals.

Ubel, a junior, had a preliminary time of 58.33 seconds and smashed that by half a second.

Ubel said the state meet was a great experience and something to build from for next season, especially after setting a personal best.

Ubel also qualified for the 50 free and missed qualifying for the finals after swimming a time of 24.57 seconds in the prelims.

The Raptors tapered prior to the section meet, which made their state meet efforts more impressive.

The 400-yard freestyle relay team of Maddy Peters, Lindsey Lewis, Taylor Johnson and Ubel placed 15th overall with a time of 3:39.87, which was two tenths of a second off its seed time.

The relay team will all return next season for East Ridge. All four are juniors and have their sights set on a return trip to the state meet.

Lewis also qualified for the 500 free and finished with a time of 5:15.19 in the prelims and did not qualify for the finals.

The Raptors sent nine swimmers to the state meet, five competitors and four alternatives.

The Raptors finished 27th overall with 11 team points. Edina won the Class AA state meet with 228 points and Wayzata finished second with 222 points.