Panther swimmers Hugh Carpenter, Trystan Preator and Will Fuller scored two new state qualifying times each during Powell High School’s Dual against Riverton Friday and in the Saturday Riverton Invitational.

Carpenter qualified in the 200 free with a time of 2:07.18 and in the 500 free with a time of 6:01.32. Preator qualified in the 50 free with a time of 25:22 and the 100 free with a time of 58:27. Will Fuller also had a good weekend with a first place win Saturday in the 50 free with a state qualifying time of 23.85 and a second place finish in the 100 back with a state qualifying time of 1:05.22. On Friday Fuller scored a third place win in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:31.91and a fifth place finish in the 100 free with a time of 1:01.25.

Head coach Stephanie Warren said it made for a great weekend for the team.

“They added more qualifying times for state, which was a great weekend for them. I believe that makes Hugh qualified in almost all the events,” she said. “They were the highlights of this weekend, for sure.”

Worland, Cody, Powell, Riverton and Lander were at the invitational, but every team was missing key swimmers who were out with the flu.

“It’s hard to say that [the swim meet] would be representation of what a meet would be if we were all there. We still had some really good swims and some good times, which is what we really look at here,” Warren said.

She was also pleased with younger team members who tried races they hadn’t tried yet.

“Getting another swim meet under their belt has been good for them; trying some events that they might not have tried before. I do know we had a couple of freshmen that haven’t swam in some other events before, so it was great exposure for them to get to swim those events and get a time so we know where we can go from here with their other races,” she said.

Powell’s varsity team is small this year, which makes competing in duals difficult, Warren said.

“We look at each meet as an opportunity to just get another a better time. That’s what our focus is on our team this year. With the size of the team that we have, our individual performances are what’s important and we hope that in each meet, they just keep bettering those performances,” she said. “It’s great to beat some teams, but it’s even better when we can look at our kids’ individual times and see that they’re cutting time.”

None of the swimmers would have seen action at the tournament if Warren hadn’t made an early call on leaving Friday rather than early Saturday morning.

“We actually went down Friday night, which was a good thing, because had we gone down on Saturday morning — which was originally what we were supposed to do — we probably might not have actually made it, based on what I heard about the roads were between Meeteetse and Thermopolis.”

Powell vs.
Riverton Dual

200 Medley Relay — Hugh Carpenter, Gabe Buchholz, Trystan Preator, Will Fuller 2:01.24

200 Free — Hugh Carpenter 2:07.18

200 IM — Will Fuller 2:07.18

50 Free — Preator, Trystan, 25.22, Gabe Buchholz 26.37, Hunter Taylor 27.11, Dayton Lawrence 29.81, Gabe Leighton 32.54

1 Meter Dives — Lawrence, Dayton 131.55 F

100 Fly — Sam Williams 1:14.82, Kooper Arends 1:28.21

100 Free — Trystan Preator 58.27, Will Fuller 1:01.25

500 Free — Carpenter, Hugh 6:01.82, Gabe Buchholz 6:31.13

200 Free Relay — PHS Will Fuller, Gabe Buchholz, Trystan Preator, Hugh Carpenter, 1:49.01

100 Back —  Tyler Kruger 1:12.31, Kooper Arends 1:13.31

100 Breast — Tyler Kruger 1:32.26, Sam Williams, 1:34.17, Gabe Leighton, 1:38.74

400 Free Relay — PHS, Tyler Kruger, Dayton Lawrence, Hunter Taylor, Kooper Arends 4:39.25

Riverton Invitational

200 Medley Relay — Will Fuller, Hugh Carpenter, Tyler Kruger, Gabe Buchholz 1:56.09

200 Medley Relay — Will Fuller 29.30

200 Free — Gabe Leighton 2:47.59

200 IM — Trystan Preator, Trystan 2:33.57, Tyler Kruger 2:37.52, Hunter Taylor 2:46.64

50 Free — Will Fuller 23.85, Sam Williams 28.36, Dayton Lawrence 30.35

1 Meter Dive — Dayon Lawrence 166.50

100 Fly — Tyler Kruger 1:07.85

100 Free — Gabe Buchholz 58.74, Sam Williams, Sam 1:03.92, Gabe Leighton, 1:14.85

500 Free — Kooper Arends 1:14.85

200 Free Relay —  Gabe Buchholz, Sam Williams, Hunter Taylor, Trystan Preator 1:50.46

100 Back — 100 Will Fuller 1:05.22, Gabe Buchholz 1:12.50, Trystan Preator 1:17.27

100 Breast — Hunter Taylor 1:25.37, Kooper Arends 1:42.41

400 Free Relay — Hunter Taylor, Tyler Kruger, Trystan Preator, Will Fuller 4:09.03; Dayton Lawrence, Gabe Leighton, Sam Williams, Kooper Arends 4:41.77