Shakira Herrera

GRINNELL — Marshalltown’s three state diving qualifiers will have company at practice this week.

The Bobcats added two more entrants to next weekend’s state meet at Saturday’s regional swim meet, as senior Shakira Herrera qualified in the 100-yard butterfly and as a part of the 400 freestyle relay.

Marshalltown finished fifth out of nine teams at the regional meet, boosted by three state diving qualifiers on Thursday night. Alli and Sami Trowbridge along with Hannah Taylor had already secured their spots for the Marshalltown YMCA/YWCA.

Herrera finished seventh in the 100 butterfly with a new school-record clocking of 1 minute, 0.29 seconds, which earned her seventh place in the regional but automatic qualification for state by way of the state’s time standard.

The 400 freestyle relay foursome of Taylor Hrabak, Cori Jorgenson, Herrera and Klaudia Hernandez teamed up for fifth place at the regional in a combined time of 3:54.10. It was the Bobcats’ best time this season by a whopping 6 seconds.

The state-qualifying performances were two of Marshalltown’s six top-10 finishes in the regional meet. The 200 medley relay team of Hrabak, Hernandez, Herrera and Jorgenson placed fifth in 1:57.98 — a new season best by more than 6 seconds — and the same quartet came in fourth in the 200 free relay in 1:46.31 — a season-best time that was 28-hundreths of a second shy of advancing to state.

Hrabak notched sixth in the 200 freestyle in 2:03.88 while Hernandez came away eighth in the 100 breaststroke in 1:16.71 — both season bests by more than 3 seconds.

The girls’ state swimming preliminaries begin Friday at 5:30 p.m. On Saturday, state diving begins at 9 a.m. and the swimming finals get underway at 4 p.m.