LANDER – Pinedale freshman Mia Buchanan is the latest swimmer to qualify for state at the 3A West Conference Championships hosted by Lander High School over the weekend. Buchanan qualified in the 100-yard freestyle event with a time of 1:02.95.

The team ended up in fifth place out of seven schools when all the points were tallied. However, Sublette County head swim coach Greg Gray said his athletes performed well against strong competition in the last major meet before state.

“The final score did not reflect the girls’ success in many of the races,” he said. “The kids gave it their everything and they did great. I saw a lot of great efforts. All three of our relay teams saw their best times of the season.”

Sublette County has now qualified 13 athletes to compete at the upcoming state meet in Laramie: Adalyn Bennett of Big Piney, Meleah Covill of Pinedale, Kaylee Day of Big Piney, Cassidy Espenscheid of Big Piney, Sierra Hattan of Pinedale, Natalie Hunt of Pinedale, Paige Nielson of Big Piney, Reese Noble of Pinedale, Darbie Paulson of Pinedale, Emma Rogers of Pinedale, Israel Seemann of Big Piney, Hayden Thoman of Big Piney and Mia Buchanan of Pinedale.

Sublette County placed second in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Seemann, Hunt, Bennett and Rogers finished with a time of 1:47.66, a mere .07 of a second behind the first-place team from Lyman.

In the 400-yard freestyle relay, Hunt, Espenscheid, Bennett and Day came in fourth with a time of 4:05.95. This time they beat Lyman by eight seconds. Seemann, Nielson, Hattan and Espenscheid placed fifth in the 200-yard medley relay with a final time of 2:08.35.

Paulson placed third in a field of 13 athletes in the finals of the 1-meter diving event with a final score of 272.10.

Hunt swam to a third-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly finals with a time of 1:06.75. Hattan also made it to the finals in the 100-yard butterfly, placing seventh with a time of 1:09.54. Thoman was not far behind in ninth place with a time of 1:10.87.

Hunt finished fourth in the finals of the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:30.31. Nielson also qualified for the 200-yard individual medley finals and placed 11th with a final time of 2:43.11.

Rogers led Sublette County in the 50-yard freestyle finals. She placed fifth with a final time of 27.03 seconds. Espenscheid placed seventh in the 50-yard freestyle finals with a time of 27.43 seconds, followed by Israel Seemann in 10th place with a time of 27.71 seconds.

In the 100-yard freestyle finals, Espenscheid swam to a ninth-place finish and a time of 1:01.29. Bennett finished just behind Espenscheid, placing tenth with a final time of 1:01.61.

Day placed seventh in the finals of the 500-yard freestyle race. Her final time stood at 6:12.47. Day also placed eighth in the 200-yard freestyle finals with a time of 2:17.95. Bennett placed ninth in the same finals event with a time of 2:19.01.

Seemann swam to a sixth-place finish in the finals of the 100-yard backstroke to a time of 1:11.88. Adrianna Ruby also qualified for the 100-yard backstroke finals and placed ninth with a time of 1:14.37.

Nielson placed 10th in the 100-yard breaststroke finals with a time of 1:20.92.

On Thursday, Oct. 25, Sublette County will traveled to Lyman to compete in their last nonqualifier meet of the season before competing at the state meet in Laramie on Nov. 2-3. Results were not available at press time.

Coach Gray feels confident as the final meets of the season approach.

“We’re moving into our rest period to get the athletes conditioned for Laramie,” he said. “The girls are really looking forward to competing at state.” n