Junior Dana Iverson became the first Bradford swimmer since 2003 to medal at the WIAA Division-1 Girls State Meet on Saturday at the UW-Natatorium in Madison.

Seeded fourth in the 100-yard backstroke, Iverson tied Waukesha South/Mukwonago’s Pamela Breitrick for fifth in 58.62 seconds. That was five-hundredths of a second slower than her school-record time of 58.57 set in winning last week’s sectional.

Shawano/Bonduel’s Mackenzie Buss finished first in 57.44 seconds. The top six finishers in each event received medals.

“Medals are tough to come by at the State Meet,” Bradford coach Franz Feldmeier said.

“She ran a real nice race. At this level you’re talking about the best of the best. Her time is comparable to last week’s.

“We’re happy that she went under (59 seconds) two weeks in a row.”

Iverson placed eighth in the 100 backstroke at the 2008 State Meet (59.06) and 11th in the event in 2007 (1:00.82).

Jenny Gelden was the last Bradford swimmer to medal at State when she won the 100 butterfly in 2003 to become Kenosha’s first female individual State champion.

Iverson also placed 24th in the 100 freestyle in 55.24 seconds. She had been seeded 16th.

Bradford senior Jaclyn Pitts improved her State standing by two spots over last year by placing 14th in diving with 312.95 points. Tremper freshman Emily Werve also competed in diving but didn’t make it to the finals. She finished 17th after the semifinals with 224.5 points.

Bradford’s 200 freestyle relay of Iverson, Tiara Thompson, Brittany Beyer and Jodi Vanderford finished 23rd — exactly where they were seeded — in 1:43.48.

The Red Devils finished 28th out of 46 teams with 16.5 points. Hartland Arrowhead (303) breezed to the team title over runner-up Madison West (181).

“In our area, Kenosha and Racine, we had the highest finish,” Feldmeier said. “We’re happy about that.”

— Compiled by Jeremy Reeves and David Marran