The Powell High School swim and dive team put on some of its best performances of the season at the right time, finishing third at the Absaraka Conference Meet in Newcastle on Friday and Saturday.

The Panthers had two top three finishers, as Hugh Carpenter placed second in the 100 fly with a time of 55.56 seconds and Will Fuller took third in the 50 free with a time of 22.83 seconds.

Fuller’s performance was good enough to place him on the Panther Wall of Fame, sneaking into the fifth spot by .01 seconds ahead of Brad Rempfer in 1995.

“That was really exciting for him to do that,” coach Stephanie Warren said. “That’s been a goal that he’s had for four years. We’re happy for him that he was able to do that.”

The Panthers also got a strong weekend from Gabe Buchholz, who added a new qualifying time in the 500 free, cutting significant time in the prelims on Friday before cutting an additional four seconds to finish fourth with a time of 5:59.85.

“Gabe had an amazing weekend,” Warren said. “He swam amazingly in his first 500 on Friday, he took off like eight seconds. Then he came back and took off another four seconds the second day. So he had an amazing weekend overall. We were really excited for how well he swam.”

Powell also got a career best score on the diving board from Dayton Lawrence, who took sixth overall with a score of 276.25 in 11 dives.

In the team standings the Panthers were third overall with 191 points, well behind conference champions Buffalo which had 363 and Cody which had 263, but ahead of Douglas in fourth with 158.

Powell got a significant boost in the team standings from Fuller, Hunter Taylor, Trystan Preator and Carpenter, as they placed second in the 200 medley relay (1:52.41), also getting a boost from Douglas’ relay team being disqualified in the event.

“It was not fun to watch them get disqualified, but it was good for our team because it bumped us up (from third to second),” Warren said. “They were pretty fired up after that.”

The Panthers will now make the short trip over to Cody today (Tuesday) to take part in the Last Chance Meet as three athletes are still hoping to bookmark their trip to the state meet in Cheyenne next weekend.

Warren said she believes Sam Williams is the closest to qualifying for the Panthers in diving, and is hoping he can add his name to the list on Tuesday.

She said those who have qualified will swim in Cody before fully tapering off before the state meet next Friday and Saturday.

“We’re hoping to get some good rest in for the boys through our taper so they can feel strong going into state,” Warren said. “From that point on (Tuesday) we’ll just taper them down and get them ready for state.”

ABSARAKA CONFERENCE RESULTS

* Denotes state qualifying mark, p denotes preliminary race time and place, top 12 advanced to ‘A’ and ‘B’ finals

Team scores — 1. Buffalo 363, 2. Cody 263, 3. Powell 191, 4. Douglas 158, 5. Worland 123, 6. Newcastle 92

200 medley relay — 2. Will Fuller, Hunter Taylor, Trystan Preator and Hugh Carpenter 1:52.41

200 free — 6. Trystan Preator 2:06.29*, 7. Tyler Kruger 2:11.39, 9. Kooper Arends 2:25.42

200 IM — 4. Hugh Carpenter 2:09.16*, 12. Gabe Buchholz 2:24.42*

50 free — 3. Will Fuller 22.83*, 10. Hunter Taylor 26.5, 18. Ethan Haslem 32.92p

1-meter diving (11 dives) — 6. Dayton Lawrence 276.25*, 8. Sam Williams 149.3p

100 fly — 2. Hugh Carpenter 55.56*, 6. Trystan Preator 1:02.74*, 11. Sam Williams 1:17.18

100 free — 6. Tyler Kruger 56.79*, 11. Gabe Leighton 1:09.55

500 free — 4. Gabe Buchholz 5:59.85*

200 free relay — 4. Will Fuller, Hunter Taylor, Trystan Preator and Gabe Buchholz 1:39.08

100 back — 7. Will Fuller 1:02.12*, 13. Kooper Arends 1:12.9p, 14. Gabe Leighton 1:17.98p

100 breast — 7. Hunter Taylor 1:12.86*, 10. Ethan Haslem 1:27.52

400 free relay — 3. Hugh Carpenter, Sam Williams, Gabe Buchholz and Tyler Kruger 3:42.75; 7. Dayton Lawrence, Gabe Leighton, Kooper Arends and Ethan Haslem 4:51.51p