Eventually she smiled. The kind of beaming, 1,000-watt smile that comes with accomplishing a long-pursued goal.

But in the moments after touching the wall and casting her eyes toward the clock Saturday afternoon at Willmar High School pool, Addie Lundin’s face portrayed only relief. The kind of relief that comes – after countless hours of practice and years of work – with finally conquering a challenge that at times must have seemed destined to remain just out of reach.

The Litchfield High School senior qualified for the state meet. After four years of being oh-so-close, she broke through, turning in a time of 1:01.71 in the 100-yard backstroke – finishing third in the Section 3A finals but more importantly, beating the state qualifying standard by five-hundredths of a second.

“I’m so in disbelief of how close it was,” Lundin said. “I was expecting myself to … drop more time. But it’s OK, because I’m going (to state) and I get to represent Litchfield in a way that hasn’t been represented since 2015. And that’s just insane. I never thought that was going to happen.”

Indeed, it was eight years ago the Litchfield girls swimming and diving program last had a state meet participant. Ironically, Sydney Weires also qualified in the backstroke as a senior, and went on to finish ninth overall in the Class A state meet.

Lundin has state meet medal platform aspirations, too. But Saturday, she was just happy to say she was going to the sport’s “big show.”

“I was relieved to know … Monday morning I get to wake up and go to swimming again,” Lundin said with a smile. “I have one more week of doing one of my favorite things in the whole world. So that’s pretty awesome.”

It’s an achievement she began to believe could become reality as a freshman, when she started hitting times in the 1:04 range. A lot has happened during the past four years, not the least of which was coaching turnover – first-year head coach Ashlynn Mattson is the program’s third in four years.

But Lundin kept getting closer, last year missing the state qualifying standard by a heartbreakingly narrow six-hundredths of a second. Even more frustrating, her time of 1:01.76 in last year’s Section 3A finals was actually this year’s state qualifying standard. The standard is established by taking the three-year average of the 16th-fastest time of the state meet preliminaries.

While disappointing, that change also gave Lundin confidence that qualifying for the state meet was well within reach.

Still, throughout the regular season, she didn’t see the time drops she hoped she might, her fastest times still being in the 1:04 range – 2-plus seconds from the qualifying standard.

But after three weeks of training leading up to the section meet, Mattson liked where Lundin was in terms of preparedness. She was actually closer to the standard this year than she was last year, and Lundin is a swimmer who has benefitted greatly from the training technique known as “taper.”

A big time drop at sections was not guaranteed, Mattson said, but it was probable.

And it became reality during the Section 3A preliminaries Thursday, when Lundin turned in a 1:01.17, the third-fastest time heading into the finals. Not only that, it was better than the state qualifying time by nearly half a second.

Unfortunately, swimmers can qualify for state only with times achieved in the finals. That meant waiting another 48 hours to swim another race of her lifetime.

And when the starter’s signal sounded, Lundin went out fast. Her 50-yard split of 29.6 seconds was well ahead of the pace needed for a qualifying time and about half a second behind eventual section champion Norah Seguin of Delano. But the second 50 was significantly slower – at 32.11 seconds actually slower than eventual fourth-place finisher Kennedy Menz of Delano, who turned in a 31.89 in her second lap.

“I noticed I was very exhausted when I got to my 75 (yards), and that’s when I started to listen to everything that was going on around me,” Lundin said. “If I listen and I pay attention to who’s next to me, usually I’m able to psych myself out of it and just say, you know, ‘This is everything. You have to give it everything.’ And so I did, I gave it everything until the last second.”

Make that the last five-hundredths of a second – the fraction that made the difference between qualifying for state or having her high school swimming career come to an end.

“I think we blink quicker than that,” Lundin said. “That really puts it into perspective of how close my season could have been, like, done.”

Instead, she gets another week of swimming, one she hopes will end with some state meet hardware hanging around her neck. But one that will be filled with a feeling of accomplishment. Of, at last, fulfilling a goal.

“It’s insane,” Lundin said. “I was walking around talking to the girls, ‘I’m going to state. I am going to state!’ It just wasn’t real.”

As happy as she was with the accomplishment, Lundin admitted it was bittersweet. She hoped she would have some teammates accompanying her to the state meet. The 200 freestyle relay team of Lundin, Adallia Bruning, Ellie Brown and Emily Petersen were within striking distance of a qualifying time.

They swam a 1:43.45 in the preliminary, just over a second away from the standard. They cut another four-hundredths of a second in the finals, but it wasn’t enough.

“I wanted that relay to succeed so bad, for Ellie, Adallia and Emily’s sake,” Lundin said. “They deserve to go to state. They put in just as much work. They work the same sets I do. We just also have different strokes, and that’s what makes it really hard.”