Eighteen girls from the Park swim team competed in the section meet showing drastic improvement from last year, according to head coach Joe Yaeger.

The meet was Nov. 7 and 8 at the Edina High School. Only some swimmers moved on to the second day of the meet.

Yaeger said he is very impressed by his swimmers’ performance.

“The overall results of the two meets combined were outstanding,” Yaeger said. “The girls swam fantastically, and they dropped a ton of time. The girls breaking pool records and making it to State were just icing on top.”

Yaeger said compared to last year, this year’s section meet showed a great improvement in many ways.

“Our relays really stepped it up. Probably twice as many girls went to the second day and a lot more medals were handed out to individuals,” Yaeger said.

Sophomore and swimmer Emily Doss competed in the sections meet and said it took a lot of hard work to get there.

“We definitely had harder practices this year compared to last year, and we had practices on days we didn’t have school,” Doss said.

After all the hard work exerted to get to this point, Doss said the beneficial outcomes are apparent.

“Being in sections you definitely know what it feels like to swim under pressure because everyone is watching you at all times,” Doss said. “You also get a lot of support from your teammates.”

Sydney Hall, Neda Salamzadeh, Natalie Sanford and Kailey DeLozier are ranked 16th for the 200 freestyle relay and will move on to the State meet. Emmi Zheng will also move on to State with a ranking of 19 in the 100 breaststroke.

The State meet will take place at 6 p.m. Nov. 11-14 at the University  of Minnesota Aquatic Center. The swimming preliminaries are Thursday and the finals Friday. The price for admission is $8 for both students and adults.