Three meets in five days for Panthers

The Powell High School boys swim team turns its attention to the busiest week of the season after a third-place finish in Lander.

The Panthers were one point behind Class 4A’s Cheyenne South at the Lander Invite on Saturday, and will hit the road for meets in Cody (5 p.m. Tuesday), Buffalo (4 p.m. Friday) and Gillette (8 a.m. Saturday) this week.

The back-to-back weekend meets will simulate what the Panthers will face at the following week’s Class 3A West Regionals in Pinedale, according to PHS head coach Jerry Rodriguez.

“Some guys, I’ll have them swim the same event on both days to kind of simulate the conference and state meets,” Rodriguez said. “You want to see how they handle going all out two days in a row.”

The two-day regional and state meets consist of preliminaries the first day, and final races the second.

“We want them to swim fast the first day to make finals, but then you have to swim faster the second day,” Rodriguez said.

A pair of Panther relay teams swam their fastest times of the season in Lander.

The 200-yard medley relay team of Seth Fuller, Kacey Creed, Josh Riedhammer and Brandon Anderson took second place with a time of 1:47.49. Despite the season-best time, Powell fell in the medley relay to Lander for the first time this season. The Tigers, who were finally able to put together their top team, won the race with a time of 1:46.59, less than a second ahead of Powell.

The Panthers’ 400-yard freestyle relay team of Fuller, Anderson, Riedhammer and Creed took third place with a season-best time of 3:39.21. Cheyenne South won the race in 3:28.43 and Lander took second at 3:33.35.

“The relays looked really good,” Rodriguez said.

And he wasn’t the only one who noticed.

“Their (Lander’s) coaches were complimenting us on how good our relays are looking, which is always good to hear,” Rodriguez said.

As the Panthers try to gain ground on the Tigers, the three relays become increasingly valuable.

“The relays, those are the big points. Our relays are getting pretty close to Lander in some times,” Rodriguez said.

Illness and a limited number of swimmers has hampered Powell in the 200-yard freestyle relay.

“The 200, I haven’t quite got that one straight yet,” Rodriguez said. “My four fastest guys end up on the same relays.”

Tyson Wages and Owen Dent were out for Saturday’s meet due to illness. Their participation could have been the difference between third and second place.

“They scored points for us every meet, so when they’re not there, we notice it,” Rodriguez said.

The Panthers have struggled maintaining a full, healthy squad all season. A handful of swimmers have either missed meets or performed at less than full capacity.

“It’s just going through the team, just one after the other. They all get one thing then pretty soon they got another thing going around,” Rodriguez said.

Sophomore Kacey Creed kept to his high standard by winning the 200-yard IM with an impressive 6.55-second cut. Creed’s time of 2:13.52 is 7.98 seconds below the Class 4A qualifying time.

“He’s swam it a few times, but not a lot,” Rodriguez said. “But he’s stepping up in everything. He goes out and races and cuts time even when we don’t expect him to.”

Wesley Patrick showed continued development at Lander, not with a big time cut, but with an unexpected debut.

The sophomore swam the 500-yard free in 7:06.48, good for 10th place, in his first time attempting the long-distance race.

Patrick’s time was about 41 seconds shy of a qualifying mark, but Rodriguez said it “is pretty good for swimming it for the first time ever.”

“I didn’t expect him to do that, but he took on the challenge, decided he wanted to do it finally and he just went after it,” Rodriguez said.

The coach said the 500 free poses extra challenges to swimmers inexperienced in the event. Pacing is key and most swimmers conserve too much energy, and as a result, swim a time slower than what they’re capable of.

“It’s so far they don’t want to die at the end,” Rodriguez said. “It takes swimming that race a lot of times to understand how that works, how far you push your body.”

Yet freshman Trenton Wilson set another personal best in just his third try at the 500 free.

Wilson’s time of 6:11.78 was good for third place, and continued his streak of improvement.

“(Wilson) qualified the first time out, swam it faster in Worland, then swam it faster again this time,” Rodriguez said.

For the second straight week no new qualifications were met, but a handful of Panthers are seemingly closing in on a trip to the state meet.

“We got a couple that are getting pretty close in several events,” Rodriguez said.

Freshman Alan Merritt swam a 1:13.99 in the 100-yard back, 0.99 seconds shy of the Class 3A qualification benchmark.

Rodriguez said Joe Rogers could qualify in the 100-yard breaststroke while qualified swimmers Nate Magill and Braden Schiller could add events this week.

Magill finished ninth in the 1-meter diving competition with a score of 158.10. Sophomore Hudson Wilkerson scored 186.70 to take third.

Lander won its home event with 383 points. Cheyenne South (291) and Powell (290) followed, while Kemmerer (135) and Cody (84) took fourth and fifth, respectively.

Anderson was awarded the Wyoming High School Athletics Association award for sportsmanship, as picked by the meet’s officials.

Rodriguez said the award is given to athletes who cheer for their teammates and opponents, and are gracious after and in between events.