The experience at the Iowa High School State Swimming Meet started on Friday with the individual preliminaries, but the Bobcats were unable to advance any of their five individual qualifiers for Saturday’s finals.

Marshalltown senior Charlie Gilbertson came the closest, as he was the lone Bobcat who shaved a little more time off his best time ever in the 100-yard butterfly. Gilbertson placed 21st in the preliminaries with a time of 53.36 seconds, coming in just under his state-qualifying time of 53.63 and improving one position from seeding.

Gilbertson’s time was just 39-hundreths shy of being an alternate for Saturday’s finals, and only half a second from qualifying for the top-16.

Fellow senior Lincoln Barker improved two places from seeding while swimming times just shy of his lifetime bests in both of his individual events. Barker qualified 32nd in the 200 freestyle and finished 30th on Friday with a time of 1:50.14. He swam a 1:50.10 at districts and narrowly missed repeating it.

Barker qualified 27th for the 500 freestyle with a time of 5:01.39, and in Friday’s preliminaries he emerged 25th in 5:01.74.

MHS senior Sam Greazel was unable to match the times he swam after tapering for districts. Greazel qualified 22nd for the 100 breaststroke (1:01.62) and finished 28th on Friday in 1:02.36. In the 200 individual medley, Greazel was seeded 28th (2:04.00) and finished 31st (2:06.85).

All three Bobcats will be back in the pool at the University of Iowa Aquatic Center on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. for the timed finals of the 200 medley relay and the 200 freestyle relay.