PHS swim stocks up for conference

Posted 2/9/16

The Panthers qualified their 14th and 15th swimmers for the state meet, eclipsing their mark of 13 swimmers from a season ago, then gave one of the program’s best performances at the Gillette Invitational.

PHS head coach Stephanie Warren said …

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PHS swim stocks up for conference

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Wilkerson, Rogers qualify as Panthers head to 3A West meet in Pinedale

The Powell High School boys swim team outdid itself during a busy stretch of three meets in five days last week.

The Panthers qualified their 14th and 15th swimmers for the state meet, eclipsing their mark of 13 swimmers from a season ago, then gave one of the program’s best performances at the Gillette Invitational.

PHS head coach Stephanie Warren said Saturday’s meet, Powell’s first in Gillette this season, was a great experience for the Panthers.

“It’s good to see the bigger 4A schools,” Warren said. “It’s good to let the swimmers swim against them. It shows them that they’re capable of swimming against those guys and challenging them and keeping up with them.”

Powell (205.5 points) finished seventh overall in the 18-team Invite. PHS assistant coach Jerry Rodriguez called it “our best placing at that meet in many years.”

Only one Class 3A team — Lander, which finished fourth with 327 points — bested the Panthers. The other five teams that finished ahead of Powell hailed from Class 4A schools.

Warren said Lander pulled away by shear volume late in the meet.

“We held them off up through diving, and right around the fly,” Warren said. “So we were able to hold off Lander a little bit and towards the end of the meet they just had a lot more swimmers entered in the events than we did.”

Warren said Lander had as many as 10 swimmers entered in events in which Powell had no more than four.

Powell’s strong showing bolstered its resume ahead of this weekend’s 3A West Conference Championships in Pinedale, but its presence alone benefited the 15 or more Panthers who will compete in Gillette at the state meet.

“It’s really good for the swimmers to swim in the pool, get familiar with the walls and turns and the facilities,” Warren said. “People call it the fastest pool in the state for a reason. It does have all deep water which is a little bit of an advantage.”

The two newest additions to Powell’s state team are sophomore Dillinger Wilkerson and freshman Joe Rogers, who each earned their first qualifications of the season in the 100-yard breast stroke.

Wilkerson took third place with a time of 1:19.75 during a dual in Cody on Feb. 2, and Rogers finished fourth with a time of 1:19.18 during a dual in Buffalo on Friday.

Warren said both Panthers were working all season for this qualification.

“They are two of the swimmers who from the beginning of the season were swimming within a couple seconds (of qualifying) every time,” Warren said. “We did pick them up just like we thought we would.”

Warren said earning a qualification prior to a season-ending taper means both Wilkerson and Rogers can save their best for state.

“They still have not had a full taper or anything like that yet,” Warren said. “Hopefully they’ll be able to pick up another event at conference, then that would give them some more options to swim at state.”

Seniors Tyson Wages and Brandon Anderson each qualified in the 200-yard IM in Buffalo. Wages finished third with a time of 2:29.18 and Anderson finished fourth in 2:30.92.

Senior Josh Riedhammer closed in on the 100-yard backstroke, but his time of 1:13.21 was 0.21 seconds shy of his seventh qualification of the season.

Sophomore diver Hudson Wilkerson finished fifth overall in Gillette — and first among 3A divers — in what was his first 11-dive meet of the season.

Senior Nate Magill’s time of 1:14.84 in the 100-yard fly in Buffalo was 0.84 seconds from his third qualification. He also finished 16th with 268 points in diving.

Though full results that included each swimmer’s time cuts were not available before press time on Monday, Warren did note that sophomore Wesley Patrick showed continued improvement in the backstroke in Buffalo.

Powell beat Buffalo 118-16 and won in Cody 127-37, though Rodriguez said both the Bison and Broncs competed with far fewer swimmers than the Panthers.

The conference meet in Pinedale will be the second to last chance for Panthers to qualify for state. A handful of swimmers — only those who are without a qualification — will begin to taper, while the 15 qualified Panthers won’t alter their routine quite yet.

“It will be a normal week of practice,” Warren said. “We’re still doing our morning practices and our afternoon practices. The taper will just be more individualized to the swimmers who need it.”

Powell’s last chance to qualify swimmers will take place in the Powell Aquatic Center against Worland on Feb. 19. 

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