LARAMIE – The Green River and Rock Springs High School boys swimming and diving teams wrapped up the 2019-20 season on Saturday at the Wyoming 4A state meet in Laramie.
After two full days of tough competition, Green River closed out the season in fourth place after collecting a total of 120 points. As for Rock Springs, the Tigers returned home in 11th place after finishing the meet with 17.5 points. Repeating as champions for a third-straight year was the host team Laramie. The Plainsmen closed out the meet with a commanding 255.5 points.
To help lead Green River to a top-five finish, GRHS junior Jason Richmond made his mark in the 200-yard individual medley. He finished in first place with a time of 2 minutes, 1.54 seconds. A few events later, the junior finished second in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:00.7.
Richmond was the only swimmer from Sweetwater County to be selected to the 2020 4A all-state boys swimming and diving team by the Wyoming Coaches’ Association. In order to achieve this prestigious honor, each racer must finish inside the top three in an individual or relay race.
“I’m super excited for Jason,” GRHS head coach Colleen Seiloff said. “Jason put in a lot of time both during the season and the offseason. He really buckled down and didn’t miss any practices. His awards are well-deserved.”
Seiloff also mentioned just how pleased she was with the rest of the Wolves who competed over the weekend.
Despite coming up just short of a top-three finish in the overall team standings, Seiloff and the Wolves have a lot to be happy about. After sending 13 state qualifiers to Laramie, GRHS has all but one returning next winter. It is important to add that the 2019-20 season was the final year that the Wolves will be competing in 4A. Come next winter, both the Green River boys and girls swimming and diving teams will move down to 3A due to school student population. According to Seiloff, Green River ranks 13th in student population. Jackson Hole High School is moving up and replacing Green River in 4A competition next year.
As for Rock Springs, despite finishing near the bottom of the standings, Tigers head coach David Galindo couldn’t be happier with the team he had in the water.
“I am extremely proud of this year’s team and the progress we made this season,” he said. “On Friday, we hurt ourselves a bit by getting disqualified in the preliminaries in the 400-freestyle relay. However, instead of that being the punctuation of the season, we came back and ended on an exclamation point. Over the weekend we had a lot of individual success and recorded some of the fastest times of the season. At the end of the meet, we were able to walk away with our heads held high knowing that we performed the best we could and had zero regrets.”
Moving forward, Rock Springs will lose only one state qualifier due to graduation, that being Conley Searle. However, Galindo is excited to bring back six of the team’s seven state qualifiers for the start of the 2020-21 season.
RSHS sophomore Quinten Gasaway provided another exciting note for the Tigers over the weekend. He kicked off Saturday’s events with a first-place win in the 50-freestyle relay. The race he won was for special needs athletes who did not qualify for state.
Since Gasaway was one of Galindo’s swimmers, the Rock Springs coach was given the unique opportunity to award all five participants with their medals.
“That was by far one of the best moments of my coaching career,” he said. “That really moved me.”
SWIMMING AND DIVING RESULTS
Wyoming 4A boys state meet
Team scores
1. Laramie (three-peat champions) 255.5
2. Cheyenne Central 239
3. Kelly Walsh 232
4. Green River 120
5. Campbell County 114.5
6. Cheyenne South 108
7. Thunder Basin 100.5
8. Sheridan 75
9. Cheyenne East 67
10. Evanston 50
11. Rock Springs 17.5
12. Natrona 10
200 medley relay
Championship Finals
1. Laramie A, Max DeYoung, Eli Willardson, Mace Spiker-Miller, Colton Drury 1:37.4
2. Kelly Walsh A, Braden Lougee, Ian Byrnes, Jonas Armstrong, Ian Pfaff 1:38.24
3. Cheyenne Central A, Kaden Anderson, Jake Geyer, Tanner Johnson, Nick Allen 1:41.25
4. Cheyenne South A, William Moore, Jared Price, Jonathon Ikerd, Luke Constantino 1:41.26
5. Cambell County A, Eli Andrews, Caden Morton, Corte Christensen, Nate King 1:41.56
6. Green River A, Jason Richmond, Devin Bobbitt, Trevor Moser, Jake Probst 1:45.81
Consolation Finals
7. Cheyenne East A, Dillon Kury, Trey Turner, Jordan Golding, Nathan Mead 1:46.89
8. Evanston A, Jaxon Nicholls, Hunter Jensen, Timmy Bloomfield, Vince Bloomfield 1:47.63
9. Thunder Basin A, Brayden Rech, Eric Thompson, Spencer Gauthier, Grady Baird 1:50.57
10. Rock Springs A, Jeran Spicer, Carter McBurnett, Talon Thomas, Anden Asper 1:53.04
11. Sheridan A, Aiden Milne, Coleman Hanchett, Troy Waugh, Skyler Mayo 1:58
12. Natrona A, Ryan Nate, Kyler Syverson, Andrew Canchola, Wyatt Jones 1:59.61
200 freestyle
Championship Finals
1. Kellen Chadderdon, KW 1:44.07
2. Jared Price, SOUTH 1:47.01
3. Caleb Carsrud, THB 1:49.91
Preliminaries
14. Araya Finley, GR 1:56.93
15. Conley Searle, RS 1:57.09
19. John Spicer, RS 2:00.64
20. Levi Westburg, GR 2:00.88
21. Brady Young, GR 2:00.99
200 Individual Medley
Championship Finals
1. Jason Richmond, GR 2:01.54
2. Ethan Merrill, CENT 2:02.82
3. Caden Morton, CAMP 2:03.14
Consolation Finals
8. Ryan Fischer, GR 2:08.39
Preliminaries
15. Carter McBurnett, RS 2:18.82
50 freestyle
Championship Finals
1. Max DeYoung, LAR 20.64
2. Ian Pfaff, KW 20.91
3. Carter Mahoney, KW 21.62
Consolation Finals
10. Elijah Kraft, GR 23.35
Preliminaries
17. Anden Asper, RS 23.84
23. Talon Thomas, RS 24.8
1-meter diving
1. Isaiah Haliburton, THB 444.3
2. Julian Yates, EAST 429.7
3. Dylan Bressler, LAR 421.65
6. Braxton Cordova, GR 361.25
11. Kyle Kight, GR 306.05
Preliminaries
14. Kayson Snow, GR 219.6
100 butterfly
Championship Finals
1. Mace Spiker-Miller, LAR 53.21
2. Jonas Armstrong, KW 53.52
3. Corte Christensen, CAMP 54.19
Consolation Finals
9. Conley Searle, RS 57.5
Preliminaries
14. Trevor Moser, GR 1:00.53
16. Ryan Fischer, GR 1:00.6
100 freestyle
Championship Finals
1. Ian Pfaff, KW 47.05
2. Colton Drury, LAR 48.42
3. Caleb Carsrud, THB 48.91
Consolation Finals
11. Elijah Kraft, GR 51.48
Preliminaries
14. Araya Finley, GR 52.72
18. John Spicer, RS 54.42
500 freestyle
Championship Finals
1. Jared Price, SOUTH 4:56.05
2. Collin Fontana, LAR 5:02.84
3. Eli Andrews, CAMP 5:09.02
Consolation Finals
10. Brady Young, GR 5:23.31
Preliminaries
13. Jeran Spicer, RS 5:27.98
15. Levi Westburg, GR 5:31.68
17. Kyler Maedche, RS 5:32.23
200 freestyle relay
Championship Finals
1. Kelly Walsh A, Carter Mahoney, Jonas Armstrong, Ian Byrnes, Kellen Chadderdon 1:28.73
2. Campbell County A, Corte Christensen, Caden Morton, Eli Andrews, Nate King 1:30.39
3. Cheyenne Central A, Ethan Merrill, Tanner Johnson, Jake Geyer, Nick Allen 1:31.4
4. Green River A, Ryan Fischer, Araya Finley, Trevor Moser, Elijah Kraft 1:34.03
Consolation Finals
9. Rock Springs A, Conley Searle, Talon Thomas, John Spicer, Anden Asper 1:35.81
100 backstroke
Championship Finals
1. Max DeYoung, LAR 49.16
2. Logan Schaad, CENT 55.05
3. Braden Lougee, KW 55.59
Consolation Finals
10. Jake Probst, GR 1:00.7
100 breaststroke
Championship Finals
1. Kellen Chadderdon, KW 59.58
2. Jason Richmond, GR 1:00.7
3. Carson Birge, CENT 1:02.1
Preliminaries
14. Devin Bobbitt, GR 1:06.63
23. Zeke Reading, GR 1:11.35
24. Carter McBurnett, RS 1:12.11
400 freestyle relay
1. Kelly Walsh A, Carter Mahoney, Ian Pfaff, Braden Lougee, Kellen Chadderdon 3:14.12
2. Laramie A, Colton Drury, Mace Spiker-Miller, Eli Willardson, Max DeYoung 3:16.7
3. Green River A, Ryan Fischer, Araya Finley, Elijah Kraft, Jason Richmond 3:22.1
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