More than 100 individual athletes converged on Lander to take part in the Bruce Gresly Pentathlon on Saturday, as two Powell High School girls booked their spots at the state meet in the opening competition.

“It was a good meet. The first meet of the season is always hard, even more so when the first meet is a pentathlon,” coach Bailey Jackson said.

Leading the way was Lynea Christensen, who finished 19th overall in the pentathlon standings with a time of five minutes, 28.97 seconds, and qualified in four out of five events. Her highest placement came in the 50 free with a qualifying time of 28.34 seconds. She added qualifications in the 100 fly with an 18th place finish (1:14.46), 100 back with a 22nd place finish (1:15.39) and the 100 free with a 24th place finish (1:04.85). The lone event she did not qualify for was the 100 breaststroke, where she finished 33rd (1:25.93).

The other Panther qualifier  was freshman diver Autumn Kleinfeldt who qualified with an 11 dive performance of 304.75 points to take third overall.

Other finishing competitors  included Tempie Day and Claire Hultgren for the Panthers.

Day finished 54th overall and Hultgren took 63rd.

“Moving forward, we’re going to have to strike a balance between technique and aerobic training. We had a few DQs (disqualifications) that were the result of tiny little mistakes,” Jackson said. “Those skills are second nature to more experienced swimmers, but newer girls need more training in that area. We need to balance that with the conditioning our higher level girls need.”

The Panthers return closer to home this week, heading to Cody on Friday for an invitational beginning at 2 p.m.

“In Cody, we’re hoping to again get more experience. Some girls couldn’t compete in Lander and most events weren’t available. We’re also hoping to clean up our races so we can avoid any more easily avoidable DQs,” Jackson said.

BRUCE GRESLY INVITATIONAL

* Denotes state qualifying mark, athletes with no places did not participate in all five swimming events

100 fly — 18. Lynea Christensen 1:14.46*, 59. Tempie Day 1:32.78, 66. Claire Hultgren 1:38.67

100 back — 22. Lynea Christensen 1:15.39*, 65. Claire Hultgren 1:26.51, 69. Tempie Day 1:28.48, 89. Meredyth Giltner 1:44.1, April Weckler 1:31.14, Sophie Erkkila 1:40.42, Autumn Weckler 1:45.28

50 free — 16. Lynea Christensen 28.34*, 75. Tempie Day 33.9, 80. Claire Hultgren 35.18, April Weckler 33.98, Autumn Weckler 37.16, Sophie Erkkila 37.55, Meredyth Giltner 38.11, River James 44.64

100 breast — 33. Lynea Christensen 1:25.93, 52. Tempie Day 1:37.77, 68. Claire Hultgren 1:46.34, Sophie Erkkila 1:33.22, Meredyth Giltner 1:39.92, April Weckler 1:46.4

100 free — 24. Lynea Christensen 1:04.85*, 72. Tempie Day 1:15.81, 77. Claire Hultgren 1:20.2, April Weckler 1:19.25, Autumn Weckler 1:26.55, Sophie Erkkila 1:31.08, Meredyth Giltner 1:35.79, River James 1:42.46

1-meter diving (11 dives) — 3. Autumn Kleinfeldt 304.75*