Adding two more qualifiers last week ensured the Powell High School swim and dive team will have half its team competing in Gillette on Thursday-Friday at the 3A State Championships.

“With a team as small as ours, it’s really important to take as many girls as possible,” coach Bailey Jackson said. “Tempie [Day] and Meredyth [Giltner] really showed up for the team at the Last Chance Meet and got it done. We had a few other girls who were so close to getting their cut in the 50 and 100 free, but those are two of the hardest events to qualify in. They are still coming to state though, we need them on our team relays.”

Lynea Christensen leads the way for the Panthers, having qualified in every event, while Autumn Kleinfeldt has qualified for three events.

Day is qualified in only the 500 freestyle, Giltner and Sophie Erkkila are qualified in the 100 breaststroke while Stella Leighton is qualified in the 100 butterfly.

“We’re focusing on more of the same: fast swims, turns and relay exchanges. It’s not about making big changes or getting faster at this point. It’s about maintaining and fine-tuning what they already have,” Jackson said.

She said while they are continuing to maintain focus on those basics in the water, the Panthers have shifted their mindset elsewhere — after a majority of them had been focused on making it to state, now their focus has changed to making it to day two of the finals.

“It’s funny because for several girls the goal was just to qualify. Well, they got that and immediately they have to pivot to the next goal of placing. It’s a pretty big change in mindset,” Jackson said.

Placing as high as they can will be the goal for a few Panthers, while the rest focus on trying to make it into the newly expanded 16 place finals, meaning eight will advance to ‘A’ finals and eight to ‘B’ finals — only six had advanced to each in years’ past.

“With how young our team is, making it to the top 16 will be invaluable. All of our qualifiers will be returning next year, so the experience they get at this state meet will help us a lot next year,” Jackson said. “But even if they don’t make day two this year, just competing in the state meet will be a brand-new experience for the vast majority of them.”

Diving prelims and semifinals begin at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday at the new Gillette Aquatic Center, with swimming beginning 20 minutes following the conclusion of the semifinal round.

Finals begin at 10 a.m. on Friday.

State qualifiers

Alphabetical by last name, times in ()

Lynea Christensen — 50 free (27.97), 100 free (1:04.85), 200 free (2:15.9), 500 free (6:22.23), 100 backstroke (1:15.39), 100 breaststroke (1:23.01), 100 butterfly (1:10.4), 200 IM (2:39.28), 1-meter diving six dives (163.65) and 11 dives (309.9)

Tempie Day — 500 free (6:38)

Sophie Erkkila — 100 breaststroke (1:23.82)

Meredyth Giltner — 100 breaststroke (1:25.77)

Autumn Kleinfeldt — 50 free (28.54), 100 free (1:04.85), 1-meter diving six dives (187.7) and 11 dives (315.1)

Stella Leighton — 100 butterfly (1:16.19)