Plainsmen swimmers and divers dominate meets
Jan. 11—The Laramie High boys swimming and diving team continued its winning ways on the road last weekend by picking up a pair of dual wins in Gillette and dominating the Sheridan Invitational.
The Plainsmen, winners of the last five Class 4A state championships, first traveled the Campbell County Aquatic Center in Gillette on Friday to compete in a three-way dual.
LHS won all 12 events while beating Thunder Basin 140-20 and Campbell County 134.5-42.5. Campbell County also beat Thunder Basin 102-37.
The Plainsmen then joined eight other teams, which featured 4A and 3A squads, for Saturday's Sheridan Invitational. LHS tallied 512 team points with Buffalo runner-up at 369 and Sheridan third at 363.
LHS won six of 12 events and finished first and second in three of those.
Garrett Rees and Josh Liu started the top-end surge when Rees won the 50-meter freestyle in 25.87 seconds and Liu was runner-up in 26.33.
Taking the top two places in the 400 freestyle was LHS' Loden Ewers in 4 minutes, 26.64 seconds for the win and Kyle Morton in 4:33.79 for second. Ewers also won the 200 freestyle in 2:04.02; Morton was first in the 200 individual medley in 2:23.11.
Also going first and second for LHS were Kody Mathill, who won the 100 backstroke in 1:06.25 and Kelan Stakes, who was runner-up in 1:08.38. All three Laramie relay teams finished second.
The other win for the Plainsmen came from their lone diver Ronan Robinson, who tallied 488.50 points from the 1-meter springboard. Sheridan's Rio Tanner was second at 395.40.
NORDIC SKIING
The Plainsmen and Lady Plainsmen cross-country skiers competed last weekend at the Casper Mountain Trails Center.
The Casper Invitational featured 5-kilometer freestyle racing on Friday and 7.5km classic races on Saturday with interval starts both days. Team scores were not tabulated.
During Friday's 5km freestyle varsity competition, the Plainsmen placed five skiers in the top 18. They were led by Jack Voos, who crossed the finish line in 14:40.1 for fourth place. Emmitt Gray was ninth in 15:28.2.
Pacing themselves and finishing next for LHS were Austin Quillinan for 13th in 15:52.8, Darin Binning was 17th at 16:09.3 and Flynn Arnold finished 18th in 16:11.4.
The Plainsmen again had five skiers in the top 20 for Saturday's 7.5km classic. Gray was the first LHS skier to finish when he was ninth in 25:21.2 with Voos not far behind for 11th in 25:45.6 and Quillinan was 13th at 26.08.7.
Gideon Moore finished in 26.40.9 for 18th place and Binning was right with him for 20th place in 26:50.9.
The Lady Plainsmen were led by Eliza Fay, who was fourth in Friday's 5km freestyle at 17:58.0. Laura Brande was 15th in 19:22.7 and Morgan Gelwicks was 30th in 21:31.8.
The same three led the LHS girls during Saturday's 7.5km classic. Fay was 11th in 30:12.8, Brande was 16th at 22:04.6 and Gelwicks was 21st in 34:09.0.
OTHER NOTESThe Plainsmen and Lady Plainsmen alpine skiers started their seasons last weekend by hosting the Laramie Invitational, featuring slalom and giant slalom racing at Snowy Range Ski and Recreation Area. Results were not provided to the Laramie Boomerang.
A roundup of several recent results for LHS boys and girls wrestling will be published in Thursday's sports section of the Boomerang and be available on the website WyoSports.net
