A year ago, the Mankato West girls swim team hitched its wagon to Sara Sneer and the senior helped the Scarlets to a ninth-place finish in the Class A meet with 102 points.

Sneer may be gone, but another first-class swimmer has emerged for West this season in Emma Abrahamson. Also a senior, Abrahamson has been the workhorse for the Scarlets and is by far the team’s highest point scorer. She qualified for state in four events at the Section 1A Meet Friday and did so in convincing fashion.

The senior turned in two school-record performances and is looking to medal in at least two events in the state meet this weekend.

“She set the section record (of 1:57.94) in the (200-yard freestyle) this weekend and blew everybody else out of the water,” West head coach Dave Burgess said. “She made a statement. She was three seconds faster than anybody else.”

Abrahamson also helped the 400-freestyle relay team set a school record at sections. She combined with Taylor Bacon, Mariah Chesley and Danielle DeCock for a runner-up time of 3:45.33.

Abrahamson set yet another school record 100-butterfly, clocking a 1:01.03 to place third. The time broke a school mark that had stood for 20 years and she was eventually named the Section 1A Swimmer of the Meet.

“The incredible thing is that Emma wasn’t feeling well at all on Friday,” Burgess said. “She was green when I stepped on the bus. It’s amazing she was able to post such fantastic times in that condition.”

Abrahamson’s other event at state will be the 200-free relay, which includes Bacon, Hannah Claussen and DeCock. Claussen also made it in another relay, joining with Bacon, Katie Boswell and Chesley to qualify in the 200-medley.

“It’s exciting,” said Claussen. “We all seemed to have a pretty good taper. I think all our relays dropped time on the second day of sections so that was nice.”

West seventh-grader Danielle Nack is in the state meet after finishing second in the section in 5:27.19 in the 500-freestyle. She may also swim a couple of relays at state.

“I never thought I’d be going to state in my first season,” Nack said. “It’s been such a fun year. The girls have been really nice to me. I’ve had a great time.”

St. Peter has also qualified a number of athletes to state and coach Mary Lager says her team’s main goal this weekend is to score more points and move up a few places from last fall. A year ago, the Saints had 14 points at state and finished tied for 31st.

“We’re optimistic because we have one more individual swimmer and one more relay than we had last year,” Lager said. “Just looking at seed times it looks like we have a shot to place in the top 16 in each of our events.”

In addition to two relay teams, St. Peter has qualified Kaitlin Kamm in the 50-freestyle and Ashley Lager in the 100-backstroke.

“We need to give a lot of credit to Ashley and Carolyn Conlon,” coach Lager said. “They put their individual events in jeopardy for the sake of the relays and they came through for us.”