Three years in a row the Powell Panther girls’ swim and dive team has finished third at the state meet, and has won three out of the past four conference titles.

Despite graduating three Panther Wall of Fame athletes alongside a two-event championship swimmer at the state meet last year, the Panthers have their eyes set on repeating those goals heading into this season.

Those goals each year from coach Bob Smartt include having the most state qualifiers in 3A, winning the conference title and occupying one of the top three spots at the state meet in November.

Returning state swimming qualifiers from last year’s squad include seniors Kik Hayano, Aubree Fisher, Charlee Brence, Baylee Brence and Kathryn Brence; juniors Paige Thomas, Kate Miller and Croix Tryon alongside sophomores Addy Powell, Patricia Christensen and Kaitlin Diver.

“We have a strong cadre of sophomores who have spent a year adjusting to our training system and should now demonstrate solid leadership,” Smartt said.

On the diving side the Panthers return three of the four qualifiers from the state championships a year ago, with sophomore Tori Black joining seniors Aramonie Brinkerhoff and Emma Brence this season.

“The four Brence girls are now seniors and making their maximum impact on our team,” Smartt said. “As a coach it is a once in a lifetime experience to work with these wonderful ladies.”

Powell will be working with a new set of technology heading into this season, having invested in TritonWear to help the coaching staff learn more about how each swimmer is performing in the water.

“We are excited to work with our new TritonWear technology which gives our coaching staff real time data on all our swimmers,” Smartt said. “The data is stored in the cloud and each swimmer after practice will be able to study all of her training repetitions.”

Smartt said he is especially excited to measure underwater vs. surface speed for the swimmers. This is due to less drag occurring underwater, and he expects the swimmers to be faster underwater especially in the backstroke and butterfly.

LANDER STARTS SEASON

Powell is scheduled to head on the road Saturday, taking part in the Bruce Gresly Pentathlon in Lander.

This will help the Panthers earn early season qualifications in addition to establishing an early season baseline before the team returns to Park County for an invitational next Friday in Cody.