On February 20 and 21, the Powell boys high school swim and dive team competed at the state meet in Gillette, Wyoming. After the team took third at the conference meet, they took fifth at state. The team had swimmers and divers make the top six in their events or the top 12.
They competed against Cody, Worland, Kemmerer, Rawlins, Newcastle, Lander, Buffalo, Douglas, Sublette County, and Lyman. In addition to that, the swimmers and divers were happy with how they performed.
“My goal for state was to come home with four medals,” junior Will Fuller said. “I thought I did pretty well in the 50 freestyle; it’s the most competitive event every year, so I’m proud of placing even fifth.”
Furthermore, the team had good swims and even a swimmer who earned a spot on the Record board. Junior Hugh Carpenter now has the fifth spot on the board for the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 55.66.
“I think I did well at state; I feel I could’ve done more if I wouldn’t have been out for a month of the season,” Carpenter said. “But I’m happy about getting on the record board and improving my time and swimming skills.”
As a result, the team reflected on how this swim season went overall.
“I believe that this season was really good for the team,” Fuller said. “A lot of the members are really young and need to develop for a little while, but it was honestly a huge uptick from last year’s performance.”
Along with that, some teams had moved up to the 4A state, which made this year’s state meet different.
“Over the last three years, bigger teams like Greenriver, Evanston, and Riverton went back to the 4A state where they were for many years,” Head Coach Mrs.Stephanie Warren said. “This allowed the events to open up for more places across the board for the other teams.”
Now with the season over, the swimmers and divers are looking at what they could improve on for next year and how they can grow their team even more.
“We were a young team this year, so we will continue to focus on improvement and technique and speed,” Warren said. “We would also like to focus on inviting more students to join the team so we can build some depth in the program.”
