After a disappointing first day at the Class 3A State Swim Meet, the Panthers wasted no time in turning things around on day two.

The Powell High School Swimming and Diving Team broke a school record in Friday’s first event of the day, broke another record later on, claimed two individual state titles and took second place as a team in Laramie.

“We couldn’t be more proud of how the boys performed this year!” said PHS head coach Stephanie Warren.

The Panthers closed out the state meet with a string of strong performances that gave the team 177 points — just enough to edge out Buffalo’s 175 points; Lander ran away from the field with a whopping 353 points.

Individual highlights included sophomore Nate Johnston winning the 100 yard breaststroke with the best time in PHS history and a couple of stellar relay performances from seniors Richard Spann and Jay Cox, junior Tarren Blackmore and Johnston.

Competing in the 200 medley relay to kick off Friday’s finals, the Powell quartet broke a 25-year-old PHS record. Spann, Johnston, Cox and Blackmore swam the relay in 1:40.54, shattering the prior record by roughly two seconds. Though the team couldn’t match Lander’s time of 1:37.53, the PHS boys were thrilled to make their mark on school history.

“We all knew that we were very close the day before, and I think everyone was very motivated to give it everything they had,” Cox said, adding, “Everything just needed to come together, and it did. Everyone had amazing swims.”

“We poured out everything we had to get that record,” added Spann.

Blackmore, Cox, Johnston and Spann later came within a second of the PHS record in the 200 free relay as well.

“This team was an amazing team to watch,” Warren said of the four. “They would mentally prepare together, and they were strong because of the confidence they had in each other. They also knew how important their performance was to the team!”

It initially looked as though the Panthers would settle for the near-record and another runner-up finish to Lander in the 200 free relay, but after the Powell boys received their second place medals, they learned the Lander boys had failed to swim in the order listed on an incorrect relay card.

After a lengthy discussion by the officials, Coach Warren informed Cox, Johnston, Blackmore and Spann that they were state champs.

“The cheer that went up around us when she said, ‘Boys, I’m gonna need those [second place] medals back’ knocked me off my feet,” recalled Blackmore, describing himself as “overjoyed.”

“It was a very surreal feeling,” said Cox.

“The first place finish was just icing on the cake for them as we were not exactly expecting that,” Warren said. “We knew it would be good just not that good!”

More expected was Johnston’s success in the 100 breaststroke. He posted the third-best time in PHS history early this season and, “We knew he was going to go higher [on the Hall of Fame board] and he did,” Warren said.

Johnston finished second to Rawlins’ Dalton Coleman in the prelims and trailed him early in Saturday’s finals.

“During that first 25 I could barely see him [Coleman] from the corner of my eye, and seeing him right next to me off the first turn gave me some adrenaline and helped me push a little harder,” Johnston said.

Johnston said it had been “pretty nerve-wracking” knowing that he’d had to swim “as fast as I possibly could” against Coleman, but he got a boost of confidence after posting a strong split in the morning’s medley relay.

Johnston ultimately passed Coleman in the second half of the race and, with a time of 1:00.54, beat him by more than a second. He also bested Kacey Creed’s PHS record, set in 2018, by a full second.

“The competition and the close times made that race exciting, and having the whole team down cheering for you losing their voices makes it much better and makes the race feel faster,” Johnston said.

He earned additional All State honors by taking second in the 200 individual medley.

Spann, meanwhile, took silver in the 100 butterfly — moving up from third in the prelims for All State honors; it was also the third-fastest time in PHS history. Further, after finishing fourth in the 100 backstroke on Thursday, Spann nearly jumped into second; he wound up third when his touch came 0.02 seconds too slow.

Others moved up the podium on Friday, too.

Senior Bryce Hogen sprung from sixth to fifth place in diving, and from 12th to 11th in the breastroke; Blackmore moved from ninth to eighth in the 100 free while holding onto eighth in the 50 free as part of “an amazing meet,” Warren said; and Ru Parker, a freshman, moved from 10th to ninth in the 500 free, and rose from ninth to seventh in the backstroke, “really helping the team with points,” the coach said.

Meanwhile, Cox held steady in the 100 fly (seventh) while slipping to ninth in the breastroke. Sophomore Francis Rogers also held onto ninth in the 200 IM and Cole Frank took 10th in diving.

But it was the Panthers’ improvement in the final event of the day — the 400 free relay — that helped secure the runner-up finish for PHS. The team of Rogers, senior Ben Cannizzaro, Hogen and Parker crushed their preliminary time by nearly 11 seconds to win the consolation finals, jumping from eighth to seventh.

The relay team “really stepped up and helped the team out,” Warren said, calling it “a very big event” for the Panthers.

The Powell coach added that, given the Tigers’ dominance, “second is the new first place and has been for like 20 years, as Lander has done this for 24 years now.”

“Stopping them will only happen if we can get as many swimmers as Lander has in their program,” Warren said. She noted that Lander has some 80 kids on its middle school team — about twice as many as Powell’s.

As for the PHS swim team, Warren said she and assistant coach Rob Gorycki were very proud that 14 Panthers qualified for state — and she noted that every qualifier posted a season best in one or more events while down in Laramie.

“This is the best Panther team that we’ve seen in quite a while and also that we may see for a couple years,” said Blackmore, expressing gratitude to his teammates and coaches.

The state meet was the final high school competition for Cox, Cannizzaro, Hogen and Spann. As the meet came to close, fellow Panthers approached the seniors and shared how much they’ll be missed.

“These four people are the best four people that we could’ve had to lead this team,” Blackmore said. “And I am glad that we were able to give them a second place finish for all the hard work they’ve put in over the last four years.”

Cox called the moment “extremely touching.”

“Most of us were crying and trying to soak up as much time as we could with each other,” said Spann, adding, “The love I have for my team and how much they love me is something I don’t think I’ll forget.”

While he’ll remember the relay team’s success, Cox said he’ll remember his teammates the most.

“I love swimming because of the sport itself,” he said, “but I also love swimming because of the people.”

Team results

1. Lander 353, 2. Powell 177, 3. Buffalo 175, 4. Worland 140, 5. Rawlins 115, 6. Kemmerer 112, 7. Riverton 107, 8. Lyman 49, 9. Douglas 48, 10. Sublette County 46, 11. Cody 25, 12. Newcastle 8

200 Medley Relay

2. Richard Spann, Nate Johnston, Jay Cox and Tarren Blackmore 1:40.54

200 Freestyle

22. Kobus Diver 2:13.48*

200 Individual Medley

2. Johnston 2:05.75, 9. Francis Rogers 2:22.77, 18. Kyler Warren 2:33.77

50 Freestyle

8. Blackmore 23.2

1 Meter Diving

5. Bryce Hogen 299.05, 10. Frank Cole 257.9, 14. Ashtin Prentiss 173*, 16. Ben Hawley 146.4*

100 Butterfly

2. Spann 55.27, 7. Cox 59.3, 13. Ben Cannizzaro 1:04*

100 Freestyle

8. Blackmore 52.75, 17. Rogers 57.06*

500 Freestyle

9. Ru Parker 5:40.07, 13. Cannizzaro 5:55.66*, 17. Diver 6:04.67*, 20. Warren 6:10.3*

200 Freestyle Relay

1. Cox, Johnston, Blackmore and Spann 1:33.41

100 Backstroke

3. Spann 54.86, 7. Parker 1:00.34, 18. Josh Wright 1:07.28*

100 Breaststroke

1. Johnston 1:00.53, 9. Cox 1:07.73, 11. Hogen 1:08.52, 16. Cole 1:11.52*

400 Freestyle Relay

7. Rogers, Cannizzaro, Hogen and Parker 3:41.19

*Denotes a preliminary time or score.

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