LHS winter athletics in high gear with busy schedules

Feb. 12—LARAMIE — The Laramie High boys swimming team hosted an aptly-named Last Chance meet Friday with athletes from Class 3A Rawlins and 4A Laramie having one more opportunity to surpass a qualification standard for the upcoming state championships.

The meet is a long-time tradition scheduled between the conference and state championships.

The Plainsmen — having won the last five state championships — cruised to win the 4A West Conference regional championship to begin the postseason last weekend at the Green River High School Aquatic Center.

Laramie tallied 433 team points for the title. Rock Springs was second at 277, followed by Kelly Walsh at 225, Jackson Hole with 112 and Natrona County at 92.

The Plainsmen won two of the three tightly contested relays. LHS began the meet by winning the 200-yard medley relay in 1 minute, 42.91 seconds with Kelan Stakes, Josh Liu, Kody Mathill and Garrett Rees. Kelly Walsh was second in 1:46.89.

The same LHS swimmers later combined again to win the 200 freestyle relay in 1:31.62. This time the leg order was Rees, Kelan Stakes, Liu and Mathill. Rock Springs was just out-touched on the timing pad at second in 1:31.79.

Rock Springs and Laramie had another photo finish in the 400 free relay in the final event of the meet. This time it was the Tigers who won in 3:27.01 with Laramie right there at 3:27.20. The LHS team was Loden Ewers, Tanner Lam, Aiden Stakes and Kyle Morton.

Morton also won two individual events. He claimed the 200 individual medley at 2:05.64 to beat teammate Aiden Stakes with 2:07.47. Morton later won the 100 breaststroke clocking in at 1:03.88 to again edge another teammate with Liu finishing in 1:04.14.

LHS diver Ronan Robinson dominated the 1-meter springboard competition with 441.35 points after 11 rounds. Natrona's Jonathan Danford was second at 221.45.

Rees also notched a win for the Plainsmen in another close race. Rees sprinted in the 50 free to finish in 22.31. Rock Springs' Gunner Seiloff was also not far behind at 22.49 for second.

LHS scored a sizable amount of team points by sweeping the 500 free with Mathill winning in 5:03.33, followed by Ewers at 5:04.37 and Kevin Montez at 5:27.03. Ewers broke the conference record in the event by recording a 5:00.68 in 2022.

The state championships will be in the Campbell County Aquatic Center in Gillette. Class 3A is scheduled for Thursday and Friday, and 4A slated for Friday and Saturday.

INDOOR TRACK AND FIELD

The LHS indoor track and field teams competed in the one-day Mustang Invitational Saturday at Natrona County's MAC facility in Casper.

The Lady Plainsmen were led by the winning 4x200 relay team of Chloe Wallhead, Kodi Johnson, Kylee Kern and Bailey Craven when they finished in 1:52.38. Natrona was second in 1:53.68.

LHS' Amanda Nilsson was second in the long jump with a leap of 15 feet, 11 3/4 inches. Cheyenne East's Taliah Morris won at 19-4. Nilsson was also fourth in the triple jump at 32-5 1/2 .

Lady Plainsman Leah Schabron was third in the 400 clocking in at 1:04.06. She finished behind Natrona's Ella Spear, who won at 1:01.06; and runner-up East's Kendra Upton at 1:03.74.

Cooper Kaligis was part of three top finishes for the Plainsmen. He was second in the 1,600 in 4:40.28 behind Natrona's Tristan Enders at 4:30.78. Kaligis was also third in the 800 at 2:07.93 behind Natrona's Jackson Dutcher first-place finish of 2:00.29 and fellow Plainsman Dominic Eberle's second-place run of 2:05.13.

Kaligis and Eberle ran the second and third legs of the 4x400, and were joined by lead-off Nathan Martin and anchor Meyer Smith for runner-up at 3:42.01. Central won in 3:40.62.

The LHS 1,600 sprint relay team of Sammy Heaney, Adrien Calderon, Martin and Smith were second in 3:47.88. Central also won this relay, this time in 3:42.91. Calderon also was third in the pole vault, clearing the bar at 13 feet.

Three other Plainsmen had second-place finishes. John Rose in the high jump when he and Natrona's Kaiden Lee recorded clears of 6-2, but Lee won with less attempts. LHS' Jackson Reed was runner-up in the long jump at 20-2 1/2 with Natrona's Bridger Anderson winning with 20-9 1/2 . Plainsman Christopher Gonzales was second in the shot put with a toss of 46-3 to finish behind Green River's Dillon Davis at 47-6.

Host Natrona swept the team standings with the boys winning at 118 and the girls with 145.5. The Plainsmen were third with 85.5 behind Central's 93.5 and ahead of Rock Springs' 60. The Lady Plainsmen were fourth at 65 behind second-place Central at 108 and Cheyenne East's 94.5 and one point ahead of Kelly Walsh's 64.

BASKETBALL

A week after traveling and take on two 4A Northeast Quadrant teams, the Plainsmen and Lady Plainsmen basketball teams hosted the other two teams in that quadrant this weekend.

Laramie, which plays in the Southeast, took on Natrona County Friday and Sheridan Saturday.

The fifth-ranked Lady Plainsmen (15-4 overall) split their games with a 53-43 loss to Natrona (9-9) and bounced back to outlast Sheridan (9-6) for a 58-54 win. The LHS girls had 63 points in this week's WyoPreps.com Coaches and Media Poll, and Sheridan was just outside the top-five with 42 points for sixth.

The Plainsmen (9-10) were edged by Natrona (8-9) in a 58-53 contest and then lost 83-62 to third-ranked Sheridan (11-4).

Additional information from the games were not available in time for this publication.

SKIING

The Plainsmen and Lady Plainsmen downhill skiers had a rare three days of races this weekend at Hogadon Basin Ski Area on Casper Mountain.

The LHS teams first had to complete the second day of the Cody Invitational on Thursday, when giant slalom races were postponed from the week before because of snowy conditions at Red Lodge Mountain in Montana.

The top three finishers for the Lady Plainsmen with two-run combined times were McCrea Doyle (14th, 1:25.95), Skye Cabrera (20th, 1:32.35) and Riley Petruso (25th, 1:39.38).

The Plainsmen top three were Omar Gardea (15th, 1:21.06), Rowan Shea (19th, 1:25.73) and Sebastian Del Rio (23rd, 1:28.96).

The LHS skiers then stayed in Casper to compete in Natrona County's Britt Farr Invitational with slalom races on Friday and giant slalom on Saturday. Final results were not available in time for this publication.

The LHS Nordic skiers also were in action as the Plainsmen and Lady Plainsmen cross-country skiers competed at Pahaska Tepee Resort near the border of Yellowstone National Park for the Cody Invitational. A 6-kilometer classic race was Friday, followed by a 10km freestyle race on Saturday.