(Lander, WY) – Lander hosted Cody for a dual Friday evening at the Bruce Gresley Aquatic Center. The Tigers were noticeably undermanned, and many swam slower than their normal times as different sicknesses have been making their way through swimmers on the team.
Five swimmers missed the meet, and six of the swimmers in attendance had missed Monday through Wednesday practice due to being sick.
The Tigers were still able to hold their own at 108 to 76 against Cody, with Carter Plaisted winning the 200-IM, and the 100-backstroke, and Brooks Even winning the 100-free and 100-breast. Lander’s 200-free relay of Brooks Even, Cameron Woltman, Brody Blunck, and Carson Blackburn also came in first. Brody Blunck won the 50-free and was less than a body length behind first in the 500-free. Full results can be found here.
Despite the illness, the Tigers were able to qualify two more kids for state at the meet, which was a silver lining for coach Shawna Morgan as she steers the Tigers toward a potential 30th state championship in February.
“No matter how sick we are, we’re still qualifying kids to state, so that’s great,” laughed Morgan. She decided to leave everyone who felt sick at all off Saturday’s Riverton Invite roster. “We can’t do what we need to do unless you guys feel better,” she said to her team after the meet.
Lander ended up bringing just eight healthy swimmers to Riverton Saturday to participate in the Wolverines’ Invitational. The team has 17 swimmers already qualified for state, with another month left to grow the number further.