PHS girls keep cutting time

Although being a little short-handed, the Powell High School girls swim team posted some strong performances in Riverton and Pinedale last week.

“I’m really proud of the girls that were there; they swam awesome — and dove awesome,” said PHS head coach Luke Robertson.

Four girls qualified in five more events during a Friday tri in Riverton and a Saturday invitational in Pinedale; Robertson said that will give PHS some more options when they compete at state.

In the 200-yard individual medley, junior Rylie Kannard qualified for state with almost five seconds to spare — shattering her prior best by roughly seven or eight seconds, Robertson said.

Senior Katie Brown and sophomore Caitlyn Miner each added the 200-yard freestyle to their lists of state-qualifying events. For Miner, that completes the second straight year of qualifying in every possible event, including diving. Robertson said she’s only the second Powell girl to accomplish the feat.

Brown also qualified in the 500-yard freestyle — cutting four seconds off her previous best — along with senior Claire Miner, who shaved 11 seconds in Riverton.

Powell’s trip to Pinedale yielded one more 3A-qualifying performance: junior Julia Kay O’Neill in the 100-yard freestyle.

At the nine-team invitational, Caitlyn Miner finished second in the 100-yard butterfly, followed by teammate Kannard in fourth. Kannard also picked up a third-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke while Claire Miner finished sixth in the 200-yard individual medley.

“At an invite like that, that’s a hard thing to do — to break that top six,” Robertson said.

Panther divers O’Neill and Caitlyn Miner also took fourth and fifth, respectively, despite having to make some last-minute adjustments.

Robertson had mistakenly thought the invite would feature the usual number of dives — six — but realized shortly before the start of the meet that Pinedale had opted to follow the format of conference and state and require 11 dives.

“Of course it was hard initially for them, because they (Miner and O’Neill) had planned on six,” Robertson said. “That’s what they had planned all week for.”

However, the coach went from being frustrated with himself to being impressed with both Caitlyn Miner and O’Neill — who he said made the best dives of their careers.

“It ended up turning out to be a positive thing, I think, but it definitely was a lot of added pressure,” Robertson said.

O’Neill earned recognition from the officials for her sportsmanship.

Many other girls posted new personal records over the two meets.

In her first-ever swimming of the 500 free in Pinedale, freshman Sidney O’Brien missed a state-qualifying time by only 11 seconds.

“For just kind of flying blind for that first time, to be 11 seconds (off) is really great,” Robertson said, noting the difficulty of finding the proper pace for that many laps.

Junior Kendyl Bohlman just barely missed qualifying in the 200 free, coming up just 0.17 seconds short.

Freshman Ashlyn Aguirre cut two seconds off her prior best in the 50-yard freestyle in Riverton and Claire Miner cut a half a second; Sydney O’Brien cut 1.5 seconds in that event in Pinedale.

Emily McCaslin knocked off four seconds in the 100 back in Riverton, putting her just two seconds away from a state-qualifying time. In Pinedale, sophomore Gracie McLain cut eight seconds in backstroke, while Aguirre cut 12 seconds in the 100-yard butterfly.

Sophomore Anamia Davila slashed 12 seconds in the 200 free, while freshman Rachel Kuntz cut nine of her own. Kuntz also bested her record by three seconds in the 100 free, while senior Beth McCaslin cut 1.5 seconds off her best in the same event in Pinedale.

Finally, Claire Miner posted her best time by four seconds in the 200 IM.

Powell finished fifth as a team in Pinedale with 138 points; Lander dominated the event with 374 points.

“I think the team pretty well has the mindset that we’re going to focus on our swims and what we’re doing and not necessarily look at the rest of the field,” Robertson said, adding, “If we swim the best we can and dive the best we can, we’re going to feel good about placing or our performance as a team.”

PHS heads to Cody today (Thursday) for a 5 p.m. meet in Cody.

200 Medley Relay

3. Rylie Kannard, Anna Fuller, Emily McCaslin and Claire Miner 2:19.79, 6. Lauren Lejeune, Anamia Davila, Ashlyn Aguirre and Beth McCaslin 2:44.10

200 Free

1. Caitlyn Miner 2:12.23 (4A), 3. Katie Brown 2:23.07 (3A), 4. Kendyl Bohlman 2:23.67, 5. Julia Kay O’Neill 2:25.15, 8. Lejeune 2:59.07

200 IM

4. Kannard 2:39.33 (3A), 6. O’Brien 2:52.15, 7. Kuntz 2:57.46

50 Free

3. Claire Miner 29.10, 6. Emily McCaslin 31.75, 7. Aguirre 31.76, 9. Gracie McLain 32.39

Diving

3. O’Neill 147.60

100 Fly

5. Fuller 1:37.68

100 Free

1. Caitlyn Miner 59.20 (4A), 6. Bohlman 1:06.42, 7. Beth McCaslin 1:09.35, 8. Sydney Horton 1:09.86, 9. Sidney O’Brien 1:10.69, 11. Davila 1:15.97

500 Free

3. Claire Miner 6:21.55 (3A), 4. Brown 6:28.34 (3A), 7. McLain 7:06.55, 8. Aguirre 7:13.04

200 Free Relay

3. O’Neill, O’Brien, Bohlman and Caitlyn Miner 1:59.79, 4. Horton, Davila, Kuntz and Fuller 2:12.42

100 Back

2. Emily McCaslin 1:15.39, 3. Beth McCaslin 1:16.09, 6. Horton 1:21.92, 9. Lejeune 1:35.51

100 Breast

4. Kannard 1:27.81, 6. Fuller 1:28.11, 7. Kuntz 1:33.16, 9. Davila 1:47.06

400 Free Relay

2. O’Neill, Bohlman, Brown and Claire Miner 4:26.84, 6. Kannard, Beth McCaslin, Emily McCaslin and Ashlyn Aguirre

200 Medley Relay

4. O’Neill, Caitlyn Miner, Kannard and Claire Miner 2:07.79, 13. Beth McCaslin, Anna Fuller, O’Brien and Emily McCaslin 2:29.99, 16. Horton, Davila, Aguirre and Lejeune 2:37.54

200 Free

8. Bohlman 2:24.39, 9. Brown 2:25.19, 18. Kuntz 2:39.39, 27. Davila 2:54.27

200 IM

6. Claire Miner 2:38.94 (3A), 18. Emily McCaslin 2:50.98, 22. Fuller 2:58.87, 24. Horton 3:08.74

50 Free

23. O’Brien 29.96, 29. McLain 32.61, 40. Lejeune 36

Diving

4. Caitlyn Miner 261.85 (3A), 5. O’Neill 259.25 (3A)

100 Fly

2. Caitlyn Miner 1:10.99 (4A), 4. Kannard 1:14.93 (3A), 13. Brown 1:21.27, 15. Aguirre 1:24.30

100 Free

8. O’Neill 1:03.62 (3A), 18. Beth McCaslin 1:08.76, 21. Kuntz 1:13.38

500 Free

13. Bohlman  6:49.72, 15. O’Brien 6:52.63, 17. Horton 6:58.18, 25. Davila 8:13.84

200 Free Relay

10. Kannard, Brown, Fuller and O’Neill 2:01.17, 16. McLain, Lejeune, Aguirre and Emily McCaslin 2:18.78

100 Back

3. Kannard 1:11.29 (3A), 10. Claire Miner 1:12.66 (3A), 15. Beth McCaslin 1:16.21, 19. McLain 1:24.50

100 Breast

15. Emily McCaslin 1:28.02, 17. Fuller 1:31.71, 21. Aguirre 1:37.09, 25. Lejeune 1:47.88

400 Free Relay

4. Claire Miner, Bohlman, O’Brien and Caitlyn Miner 4:23.79, 12. Brown, Kuntz, McLain and Horton 4:53.07