Laramie High School Seeks Top Three Finish At State Swim Championships

The Laramie Lady Plainsmen are competing at the 2014 4A State Swimming and Diving Championships in Gillette.

The two days of competition is underway with the diving prelims and semifinals, followed by the swimming prelims Thursday. All the event finals will take place with a 10 a.m. start time Friday at the Campbell County Aquatics Center.

Laramie High School is represented by 21 qualifiers. That is broken down into 16 swimmers and five divers.

The Gillette Lady Camels are the over-whelming favorite to win the team title according to Lady Plainsmen head coach Tom Hudson. This means LHS is vying for the runner-up spot.

They can attain that with their depth says Hudson, "That's what we have relied on all year long; and going into the state meet with every splash full, except for two, we're leaving two open in the 100 (butter)fly, but pretty full line-up, so we're feeling good about our depth."

Hudson is also encouraged by the fact they got their 16 swimming qualifiers without any rest.

"That's unusual for us... everyone's time's we're expecting to drop significantly at the state meet. That's not always the case. This year it will be, so we have high expectations for that."

Laramie does have one defending state champion. That is junior Ryleigh Kobbe, who has captured the last two 4A state titles on the diving board. She is favored to win a third straight over the next two days.

Kobbe says,

"I try not to think about the pressure. I just think about the training I've done, and think about having fun."

The 2014 Wyoming 4A State Swimming and Diving Championships are underway in Gillette. You can watch the action by clicking here.