A series to share #smiles across our community through the achievements of our local youth, brought to you by Olsen Orthodontics.
(Gillete, WY) – The Lander Swim Club recently won the Division 1 Wyoming Swimming, Inc. Winter Championships in Gillette last weekend, which means the team will get a Champions Parade through Lander’s Main Street tonight, March 7, starting at 6 PM.
Lander Swim Club Head Coach Jennifer Hudson Schaff shared that Club is a both a non-competitive and competitive swim club that has been around since 1972, founded by Bruce Gresly. It’s the largest swim club in the state, and also includes Assistant Coaches Erik DeClue, Anthony Schaff, and Scott Becker.
The Club took a team of 53 athletes (ages 7-18) to the Winter Championship, which took place from February 28 to March 2, where they won Division 1 by 198 points.
“This is the first time that we have had a LVHS Girls HS championship, a LVHS Boys HS championship, and a club championship in one year,” Schaff commented.
Schaff shared that this year the team had two high-point winners.
8&U Boys – Boden McRae – “It was his first time qualifying and attending a championship meet. (Sidenote: he loves to swim and be active so much that it was hard keeping him out of the warm-up lanes.)”
15-16 Girls – Vayda Havens – “Vayda had very tough competition from all around the state. She placed first or second in almost every event except for one (6th place in 100 breast). She also achieved qualifying times for Senior Sectionals next week in Boise, ID with 3 other girls from the team.”
Schaff also shared the following:
“We were very strong in a couple of age groups. That means we had three or more athletes score in the top 8 or the top 16 for that event. Every member of the team scored points for Lander either individual events or were part of a relay team that also scored points. For our 8&U swimmers, most of them had not been to a championship meet before and showed tremendous courage and poise under pressure, confidence in their swims, and as a group scored incredibly well.“
“We also had that kind of depth with the 13-14 Boys and 15-16 Girls. We had three boys who attend middle school who competed and scored among others who were freshmen and had the benefit of a high school training program. They held their own! We had 4 boys in this age group make it to finals and placed 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 8th. THAT IS DEPTH! And speaking of depth, we had a total of eight 15-16 Girls entered and competing in the meet. It was incredible to see so many green caps on the blocks and doing so well!“
“I also wanted to mention that we also had a grant this year to help us with competitive success. It is likely a one-time grant, so we’re super happy with the results! The grant helped us identify swimmers who wanted to increase the number of practices and meets that they attended this year. The grant helped us subsidize club dues and some meet fees and travel so that it would be less of a financial commitment to competitive success. Our goal was to increase the number of entries into the championship meet by 8%. We were able to increase entries by 48%. And we definitely have some swimmers who fell in love with the competitive aspect of the sport.“
“Bruce Gresly would be incredibly proud!”
Congratulations, Lander Swim Club! And shout-out to the Riverton team as well, who finished 4th in Division 2!