PHOTO BY TROY HYDE/NEWTON NEWS - Marshalltown senior Libby Meyer completes her leg of the 400-yard freestyle relay during Friday’s timed finals at the girls’ state swimming championships at the University of Iowa’s Campus Recreation and Wellness Center in Iowa City.

IOWA CITY — The taper that helped the Marshalltown girls’ swimming squad chop off tons of time in qualifying for state had worn off by the time the Bobcats got there.

Marshalltown sent five events into the pool at the Iowa High School Girls State Swimming Championships on Friday afternoon, but none of them were able to take anymore off the personal-best times that got them that far.

Three Bobcat relays took to the water for their timed finals on Friday at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center, starting with the first event of the session. The 200-yard medley relay team of Addison Elmore, Adele Beek, Emma Case and Rachel Case clocked in at 1 minute, 55.93 seconds to finish in 19th place, not far behind their season-best time of 1:54.70 that qualified them in 16th place.

Leia Hernandez represented the first of two individual qualifiers for the Bobcats, going into the first heat of the 100 freestyle finals. Guaranteed a second-team all-state honor, Hernandez narrowly missed out on her personal-best time of 53.90 and finished in 54.38 for 13th place. She entered regionals with the 40th-fastest time in the state and finished with a top-16 clocking at the state meet.

The Bobcats’ 200 freestyle relay team of Rachel Case, Beek, Drea Ceren and Hernandez hit the water next. The quartet qualified for state as the 17th-seeded team with their season-best time of 1:43.72, and on Friday the ‘Cats came in 20th in a combined time of 1:44.12.

Beek earned a spot in Friday’s 100 breaststroke finals with her preliminary time of 1:08.55, which was good for 11th, but she finished in 14th with a 1:09.50.

Marshalltown closed out the state meet in the final event as well. The 400 freestyle relay squad of Elmore, Libby Meyer, Ceren and Hernandez went into state with the 21st-seeded time of 3:48.44, and on Friday they finished with a 3:51.47 to place 26th.

Hernandez and Beek combined to score seven points for Marshalltown, which said farewell to state-qualifying seniors Rachel Case and Meyer.