Two area freshmen will be headed to this weekend’s Girls State Swimming and Diving Meet at Evanston hoping to medal.

All sectional winners from around the state, plus anyone else bettering the predetermined qualifying times, will compete in the state meet.

Lockport freshman Lindsey Merk scored the best sectional time in the 100 butterfly, 55.52 seconds. Lincoln-Way East junior Makayla Varga recorded the seventh-best time at 56.57. Merk also had the sixth-best time in the 100 backstroke, a 56.83. The leader there is Gillian Gagnard of St. Ignatius at 56.02.

Meanwhile, Plainfield North Co-op freshman Jessica Davis posted the fourth-best sectional time of 1:51.47 in the 200 freestyle. The state’s best time was the 1:50.09 by Stevenson’s Iza Pelka. Davis also qualified 11th in the 100 free at 51.98.

Other Joliet area individual qualifiers included Lockport’s Emily Johnson (1:55.16) and Lincoln-Way East’s Michaela Mitchell (1:58.97) in the 200 free; Plainfield North’s Kate Meunier (2:06.85), Lincoln-Way Central’s Constance Senese (2:07.75) and Lockport’s Oliwia Wolek (2:08.85) in the 200 IM; Lincoln-Way West’s Caitlyn Schreiber (23.81) and Lincoln-Way West’s Madi Jager (24.37) in the 50 free; Lincoln-Way East’s Sara Henessy (362.55 points) in diving; Lemont’s Sylvia Kobylak (57.81), Wolek (57.84) and Lincoln-Way East’s Braelyn Binkowski (57.97) in the 100 fly; Schreiber (52.08) in the 100 free; Mitchell (57.90) in the 100 back, and Kobylak (1:05.37), Senese (1:05.65), Meunier (1:05.96) and Lincoln-Way East’s Cailin Merck (1:06.46) in the 100 breaststroke.

Lincoln-Way East (1:48.04), Plainfield North (1:48.45) and Lockport (1:48.75) all qualified in the 200 medley relay. Plainfield North (1:37.06) qualified 13th in the 200 free relay, with Lockport (1:38.47) and Lincoln-Way Central (1:39.28) also among the qualifiers. Plainfield North (3:33.50), Lockport (3:35.67) and Lincoln-Way Central (3:38.54) will be in the 400 free relay as well.