Nine Powell Panther swimmers collected a seventh-place finish last week in the Class 3A swimming finals in Gillette.Senior Devin Lynn led the Panthers efforts with two sixth-place finishes. On Friday, Lynn cut three seconds from his seed time in the individual medley, and one second from his breaststroke time to earn spots in the championship heats.

In addition, Lynn was part of the medley relay team, joining Kyle Anderson, Trent Eckerdt and Andre Miasso to win fifth place, the highest place earned by the Panthers during the meet. The four earned the sixth slot in the championship heat by just one second, and they moved up to fifth by edging Worland by just over .5 seconds for the fifth-place honor.

Other placers for the Panthers were Jared LaPierre, Billy Cummings, Cole Good, Trent Eckerdt and Kyle Anderson, all of who swam in the consolation finals on Saturday.

Cummings earned the eighth spot in the individual medley preliminaries, but swam more than 1.5 seconds faster on Saturday to move up to seventh, and he also finished second in the breaststroke.

LaPierre cut 10 seconds from his seed time to record the 11th best time in the 500-yard freestyle on Friday. Saturday, he cut three more seconds to finish in ninth place. In the 200, he earned an alternate spot in the 100 freestyle, moved into the consolation finals when another swimmer withdrew, and finished in 12th place.

Like LaPierre, Anderson took advantage of a withdrawal to swim in the 500 freestyle finals in the 12th position, then swam to 11th place on Saturday. Eckerdt reduced his time in the butterfly both days to finish in 10th place. Cole Good established himself in seventh place in the diving preliminaries and held onto that spot throughout the competition.

The 200-yard freestyle relay team of Tim Izell, Danny McKearney, Eckerdt and Cummings also finished seventh and the 400-yard freestyle relay team of Miasso, Izell, McKearney and Lynn finished ninth.