Sophomore diver Anesa Beard of Franklin Community High School successfully qualified Friday afternoon for the IHSAA Girls Swimming and Diving State Finals.

Beard posted an aggregate score of 377.05 in her 10-dive routine, easily bettering the standard of 321.30 she needed match exceed in order to qualify.

Beard will join a field that includes 32 other divers. They begin competition at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Indiana University Natatorium in Indianapolis. Beard selected No. 13 in the random draw for diving order. Each diver will attempt five dives in the preliminary rounds, with the top 20 advancing to the semifinals. Each diver then will attempt three more dives, with the top 16 advancing to the final round at 1 p.m. In the final round, each diver will attempt her last three dives for a total of 11.

Action in the 27^th Annual IHSAA Swimming and Diving State Finals begins at 6 p.m. Friday with preliminaries in all 11 swimming events. The top eight times in each event advance to Saturday’s championship round. The next eight finishers in each event qualify for the consolation finals on Friday.