Girls swimming: Sterling’s Austin swims to top-20 finish at state

Sterling sophomore Madison Austin placed 18th in the 100-yard freestyle on Friday in the preliminaries at the IHSA State Swimming & Diving Meet at FMC Natatorium in Westmont.

Austin swam the race in 52.35 seconds, just off the time of 52.24 she recorded at the Byron Sectional last weekend. She missed the consolation finals by a mere .17 seconds, as the top 12 advance to Day 2.

Byron’s Audrey Kilmer had a pair of swims in the prelims, placing 23rd in the 200 individual medley in 2:12.65. That was more than a second off her seed time of 2:11.31 at last weekend’s sectional.

Kilmer also teamed with Lily Swiech, Madi Groharing and Emily Marshall to take 24th in the 200 medley relay, swimming a 1:54.05. The quartet’s state seed time was 1:50.44.

Byron diver Addison Bausman scored a 203.95 in prelims to advance to the semifinals in eighth place in the 1-meter diving competition, then scored a 290.60 in the semis to finish 15th.