A small team featuring only 11 athletes will dive into the 2025-26 season for the Powell High School boys’ swim and dive team, bringing back some of the top competitors from a year ago who have set high goals this year.

“This is the smallest team we’ve had in quite a while,” coach Stephanie Warren said. “However, the group is a pretty good, close group of friends and swimmers. We have four of them coming from Rocky and Lovell and then we have the rest of them from Powell and they all have a great rapport so far.”

At the forefront for the Panthers will be a trio of seniors who qualified a year ago, in Hugh Carpenter, Will Fuller and Trystan Preator.

Carpenter and Fuller were the two highest placers for the Panthers a year ago, as Carpenter took fourth in the 100 fly and Fuller placed fifth in the 50 free and sixth in the 100 back.

“Will, Hugh and Trystan are really taking the lead this year as the seniors and encouraging them,” Warren said. “They have some pretty lofty goals this year. They want to make some records and do the best they can to get there. They’re really determined to practice really hard. I think Hugh, Will and Trystan are all kind of looking at the Hall of Fame board. Will and Hugh specifically have some very specific goals for that. They’re excited for that.”

Other state qualifiers returning from a year ago include sophomores Tyler Kruger and Sam Williams, along with junior Gabe Buchholtz in the pool as well as junior Dayton Lawrence on the diving board.

“He’s (Lawrence) picking up right where he left off,” Warren said. “That’s exciting because that hopefully will have him qualify earlier in the season, and help him just be more confident with that.”

Starting off the season Warren said the Panthers won’t likely have their entire team due to practice requirements not being met, but they won’t have to travel far to kickstart the year hosting a quad with Cody, Worland and Newcastle at 5 p.m. on Friday.

“The first weekend will be good,” Warren said. “Not everyone will have enough practices, but it’ll be great to kick off here at home. They always get excited about home meets, and they’re excited to have that as their first meet.”

Following the meet on Friday the Panthers make the short trip to Cody on Saturday, taking part in an invitational at 10 a.m.

“We’ll see Cody and Worland quite a bit, and they have pretty good rapport with those two teams, so they really look forward to competing against them,” Warren said.

While the Panthers may be a small group this year, Warren said they are working hard and are going to make the most of each week together.

“We’ve got a great group of kids coming back. They’re working really hard in practice,” Warren said. “They’re really dedicated this year to making the practices and doing what it takes to do the best we can this year … They’re nominating a swimmer of the day … They’re building a great team.”