Lady Panther Emma Karhu won the diving event, while teammate Caitlyn Miner earned state-qualifying marks in each of her four swimming events, as the Powell High School girls’ swim and diving team finished fourth Saturday at the Bruce Gresly Pentathlon in Lander.

Unofficial team results put host Lander in first with a score of 731.5. Lyman was runner-up with a score of 584.5 and Jackson, competing in 3A again for the first time in a couple of years, rounded out the top three with a score of 359.5. Powell was unofficially fourth with 320 points.

“Overall, we were pleased,” said PHS head coach Bob Smartt. “The athletes get to swim as many as five races, so that gives us a very good benchmark on where our training stands and what we need to do going forward.”

Powell was led by a strong performance by its dive crew, placing first, third and fourth.

Sophomore Karhu took the six-dive event and posted an over 169.70, with senior Caitlyn Miner in third (with a state-qualifying score of 158.75) and junior Maddie Hackenberg was fourth with a score of 135.75. Smartt said three freshman divers — Delainey Rayment, Kylie Kahl and Taycee Walker — also gathered valuable experience.

The event featured a diving competition and a swimming competition, with many of the Lady Panthers participating in both. If an athlete did not participate in at least four swimming events, that athlete was marked an exhibition competitor and received no points in the pentahlon.

“Even though Emma Karhu won the entire diving event, she didn’t receive any points for it,” Smartt said. “Normally she would have scored 48 points for first place in diving, but because of the way they configured things, and because we didn’t swim her in four other swim races, she had an x by her name for exhibition. That’s why that [unofficial final team score] is a little misleading.”

Miner placed third among all swimmers while qualifying for state in the 100 butterfly, 100 backstroke, 100 breastroke and 100 freestyle, plus the diving.

“With a total of five state marks, senior Miner is well on her way to qualifying in all nine individual events for the fourth time in her high stchool career, a very rare achievement,” Smartt said. 

Sophomore Addison Moretti had a strong meet, with state-qualifying marks in the 100 butterfly and 100 back, as well as scoring points in the 50 and 100 freestyle. Junior Sidney O’Brien earned a state mark in the 100 backstroke, and swam “significant personal best times in her 100 butterfly and 100 breaststroke races,” Smartt said.

The meet awarded points to the top 30 athletes in each event. In addition to the athletes mentioned above, Lady Panthers scoring points were Ashlyn Aguirre (28), Anna Fowler ( 20), Elizabeth Liggett (19) and Madison Lowery (12). On the day, the Lady Panthers recorded 24 personal best performances.

The Panthers’ next meet is the Terry Bartlett Invitational on Friday in Cody.

“We have a long list of technique issues that we will try to address in practice with individual drills for the athletes,” Smartt said. “From a team perspective, I think we matched well against Jackson and Worland. The team that had a strong meet that we’ll have to look out for going forward is Lyman.”

Gresly Pentathlon Results

100 Yard Butterfly

3. Caitlyn Miner 1:06.12, 13. Addison Moretti 1:13.41, 20. Ashlyn Aguirre 1:16.02, 24. Elizabeth Liggett 1:18.51, 31. Anna Fuller 1:23.68, 33. Madison Lowery 1:24.76, 34. Sidney O’Brien 1:25.39, 39. Lauren Lejeune 1:26.82

100 Yard Backstroke

6. Caitlyn Miner 1:08.01, 11. Addison Moretti 1:10.87, 13. Sidney O’Brien 1:11.75, 19. Ashlyn Aguirre 1:15.40, 26. Elizabeth Liggett 1:17.11, 30. Madison Lowery 1:18.18, 32. Anna Fuller 1:18.36, 55. Dakota Hansen 1:25.29, 62, Lauren Lejeune 1:26.88

50 Yard Freestyle

21. Sidney O’Brien 28.97, 22. Madison Lowery 29.00, 27. Addison Moretti 29.59, 34. Elizabeth Liggett 30.05, 39. Anna Fuller 30.49, 55. Ashlyn Aguirre 32.00, 64. Lauren Lejeune 32.80, 68. Dakota Hansen 33.65.

100 Yard Breaststroke

3. Caitlyn Miner 1:14.11, 14. Anna Fuller 1:22.91, 23. Sidney O’Brien 1:26.13, 25. Elizabeth Liggett 1:27.22, 31. Addison Moretti 1:30.03, 36. Dakota Hansen 1:31.57, 46. Lauren Lejeune 1:35.04, 47. Ashlyn Aguirre 1:35.05, 51. Madison Lowery 1:35.91

100 Yard Freestyle

4. Caitlyn Miner 58.55, 25. Addison Moretti 1:05.24, 31. Anna Fuller 1:06.16, 32. Sidney O’Brien 1:06.36, 33. Elizabeth Liggett 1:06.67, 54. Ashlyn Aguirre 1:12.89, 59. Madison Lowery 1:14.41, 63. Lauren Lejeune 1:15.39, 68. Dakota Hansen 1:16.76