Carson swimmers strong in qualifying at state

The Carson High boys and girls swim teams had a successful day of qualifying on Friday in the NIAA/U.S. Bank 4A State Championships in Las Vegas.

Tara Theilemann has a shot at two individual titles for the Senators as she's seeded first for today's finals in the 100 and 200 yard freestyles. As was hoped for, Theilemann and Kate Hardt qualified first and second, respectively, in the 200 free.

But in somewhat of a surprise, Theilemann was also able to qualify first for the 100 free in 52.35 seconds. Hardt qualified fourth in 53.05.

At last week's zone meet, Theilemann and Hardt placed second and third, respectively.

Lauren Costella also qualified first in the 500 free in 4:55.9 and third in the 200 individual medley. In addition, Karen Burke qualified seventh in the 50 free.

For the boys, Justin Barber qualified third in the 500 free (4:50.16) and second in the 200 I.M., missing qualifying first by less than a second.

Ryan Theilemann qualified sixth in the 100 butterfly and had a time of 1:03.55 to qualify in the 100 breaststroke. Kiel Costella qualified 10th in the 200 free as well.