(Lander, WY) – What does a swim team do to make it through the tough middle part of the season? They throw in some fun, of course! This week the LVHS Swim and Dive team had their annual Pumpkin Relays practice on Friday. They followed that up with a scramble meet in Jackson on Saturday.
For the Pumpkin Relays, the athletes were divided into six teams that competed in events ranging from the belly flop to non-standard relay events such as swimming in sweatshirts and with multiple kickboards. The signature event is a relay where each team-member must swim a lap of the pool holding their team’s decorated pumpkin out of the water. It’s all in good fun while still getting in a good workout for the day.
Saturday, Jackson hosted the Jackson Scramble. At this meet, members of both the Jackson and Lander teams are combined and then split into two different groups, the Green Team and the Orange Team. Regular individual swimming and diving events are run, but it’s a good chance to interact with different “teammates”. Over the years, this has led to great relationships forming between the Jackson and Lander teams.
This year the Green Team beat the Orange Team 81 to 66, but it’s safe to say, everyone was a winner here.
The fun aspect of this meet is perfect timing as the athletes have been working so hard at practices during this part of the season, their bodies are not always able to put out their best times in the races at this point of the season. In another week and a half the difficulty of the practices taper off and all that hard work will help them perform their best at the state meet in November.
Lander is next in action Friday at the Kelly Walsh Triangular in Casper and Saturday at the Cheyenne East Invite. Over the course of these two meets, the athletes will face most of the top swimmers and divers in the state, regardless of classification.
The above write-up and scoring breakdown was provided to County 10 by Tamara Anderson and the LVHS Girls Swim and Dive Team.