They feel their hearts pounding. Muscles burning. Lungs screaming. The love and hate for their opponent. They feel the insane drive to keep pushing to the wall. One word: Swimmers.

The adrenaline rush overpowers the pain from morning and afternoon practice every day. The times when you wake up in the morning and contemplate not going. The times when your body hurts; it’s hell week, and you’re swimming the hardest set as your lungs are on fire. The times when you only got four hours of sleep the night before from the tremendous amount of homework you had plus makeup work from the days you missed.

These are the times when it means the most; they either make you or break you.

The willpower the Powell High School boys swim team earned them a total of 189 points, placing them in third place behind Lyman (197) and Lander with their 22-peat for the state title with 325 points in Laramie on Feb. 15-16.

“I think we could’ve done better but it is what it is,” freshman Matthew Hobbs said.

No matter what, there’s always room for improvement, but 12 of the 16 swimmers and divers on the team qualified for state.

With the new coach, Rob Gorycki along with Stephanie Warren trained the Panthers to compete at their best and beyond.

“There were so many new variables for us this year at state,” Coach Warren said. “A new coach, new training, new pool and swimming at a much higher elevation. State was better than we expected in some ways and a little disappointing is other ways.

“Overall it was a great meet and everyone cut time for the most part. We had a very good taper and almost all of the swimmers would say that. Illness struck a few swimmers right before state so they struggled a little but still did good considering. We did disqualify our 200 free relay in the prelims so we lost those points in the finals. That loss most likely caused us second place, but we did everything we could and make up for it in the finals.”

Senior Kacey Creed, who placed second in two events, won the Sportsmanship Award along with everyone on the Cody swim team, voted on by the Wyoming Swim Coaches Association.

“The season was hard, but it went by way too fast,” Creed said. “From the time I was a freshman to now were the members of them team and more memories were made as greater ones were gained.”

The season overall had its ups and downs as it overcame many obstacles. They embraced the new challenges they faced and did their best to impress.

“It has been a pleasure to work with and coach this team this year as every other year,” Coach Warren said. “We have a lot of fun and I couldn’t ask for a better swimming family, not to mention a wonderful parent support group,”

State results include:

200-Yard Medley Relay:

Third place Richard Spann, Kacey Creed, Jared Fuller, Dillinger Wilkerson – 1:43.38

200-Yard Freestyle:

10th place Joe Rodgers – 2:01.76; 12th place Jay Cox – 2:04.69

200-Yard Individual Medley:

Second place Richard Spann 2:09.51; Fourth place Jared Fuller 2:14.56

50-Yard Freestyle:

11th place Jay Cox 24.91

1-Meter Diving:

First place Hudson Wilkerson – 323.80; Fifth place Bryce Hogen – 193.70

100-Yard Fly:

Second place Kacey Creed – 55.06; Seventh place Gavin Asay – 1:00.08

100-Yard Freestyle:

Eighth place Dillinger Wilkerson – 53.17; Ninth place Joe Rodgers – 54.07

500-Yard Freestyle:

Fifth place Trenton Wilson – 5:48.13; Eleventh place Gavin Asay – 6:00.85

100-Yard Backstroke:

Third place Richard Spann – 55.53; Sixth place Jared Fuller – 1:00.21

100-Yard Breaststroke:

Second place Kacey Creed – 1:01.54; Fifth place Dillinger Wilkerson – 1:04.82

400-Yard Freestyle Relay:

Third place Joe Rodgers, Jared Fuller, Jay Cox, and Kacey Creed – 3:32.08