A second can seem like a lifetime in the 50-yard freestyle, but that’s how much time Newburgh Free Academy sophomore Elle Gerbes had to drop to get into the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championship meet.

But she turned her 25.71 seed time into a 24.85, which qualified her for the state meet, scheduled for Friday and Saturday at the Webster Aquatic Center in Section 5, in the preliminaries and then improved upon that in the finals to a 24.69.

“I was definitely shocked,” Gerbes said. “I had been working really hard to get there. So, I was really happy.”

She is the first Newburgh Free Academy swimmer to go to the state meet since Shaylea Triller went in the 100-yard freestyle in 2019.

She was also one of three Section 9 swimmers to qualify for the state meet. She finished third in the event with only Minisink Valley’s Michaela Hujus and Pine Bush’s Katie Webster in front of her. A sophomore, Gerbes is younger than both of them, as Hujus is a senior and Webster is a junior.

She enters the state meet ranked 37th in New York State.

“I definitely think this is a good thing for me,” Gerbes said. “I’m proud of myself and I’m thankful for everyone around me for their support.”

Zach Williams, who took over as Newburgh girls’ swimming coach when former coach Pat Kavanagh was promoted to assistant principal said Gerbes’ talent was undeniable.

“As soon as she hit the water, you knew that she had the talent to swim fast, but to see her progress that rapidly, it’s almost exponential how fast and how well she’s adapted to the sport in such a short time. At the beginning of the year, I don’t think it was outrageous to say she was going to make states, so I think that was a goal.”

To make a large drop in time during the championship season has long been a tradition of Newburgh Free Academy swimming, stretching back at least until the days when Williams, himself, went to states for the first time in 2005 as a junior.

“I think that’s something NFA swimming is known for,” Williams said. “It’s something we pride ourselves on. We were happy with her entire season. She swam very fast the whole year, and we expect to make some jumps at the end. She’s very competitive. She’s a great racer.”

Even as great a racer as she is, Gerbes doesn’t have many expectations for what she can accomplish this weekend. There’s little strategy in her event. It’s a full-out sprint, as fast as you can go from 50 yards. Even at 37th, she’s only 1.16 seconds off the pace set by Corning’s Angelina McKane.

Again, a second can seem like a lifetime.

Bu Gerbes is going to states with no expectations, just to savor the experience and learn from it, especially since she has two years left.

“I don’t know if I have any expectations really,” Gerbes said. “I’m really excited to go there and see what it’s like.”