The Ranger boys’ swim team competed at the Riverton Pre-Invite on Friday, Dec. 14. Kemmerer will swim at Rock Springs on Thursday, Dec. 20, then take a break for the holidays until Dec. 28 and 29, when the team will travel to Laramie to compete.

Head coach Amanda Aimone emphasized the importance of her small group of Ranger swimmers working together as a team to achieve success.

“They have shown great teamwork when it comes to competition,” Aimone said. “They are cheering for one another and are there for each other when things have gotten really hard.”

So far in the 2018-2019 season, the Rangers have qualified five swimmers to compete in several individual events at the state meet.

Junior Benjamin Wergin has qualified for state in the 100-yard freestyle, 100-yard butterfly, 100-yard breaststroke, 100-yard backstroke, 50-yard freestyle and 200-yard IM.

Freshman Aiden Runnion has earned state-qualifying times in the 200 IM, 200 freestyle, 100 butterfly, 100 breaststroke, 100 backstroke, 50 freestyle and 500 freestyle.

Sophomore Brayden Dearden and junior Grady Killian are state qualifiers in the 100-yard breaststroke, and freshman Raydin Scigliano has qualified for state in the diving event.

“I think that the guys have worked really hard so far in their dryland as well as in the water,” Aimone said. “They need to keep it up. They have also kept their attitudes really positive and that also needs to continue.”

The Rangers are currently practicing at the Evanston pool a few times a week because of the current renovations on Kemmerer’s indoor pool.

At Riverton, the boys earned first place in the 200-yard medley relay. The relay swimmers were Runnion, Killian, Dearden and Collin Smith. The Kemmerer team of Michael Clarke, Tanner Brown, Noah Hankin and Matt Garver earned fourth place in the 200-yard medley relay.

The Ranger team of Runnion, Dearden, Killian and Smith also finished first in the 200-yard freestyle relay. In the diving event, Scigliano finished first.

Now that the Rangers have a few swim meets under their belt this season, Aimone outlined how she wants the swimmers to improve.

“I would like to see their starts and turns improve. Those are little things that a lot of times people push to the side because all they concentrate on is moving fast,” Aimone said. “To move fast we need to make our starts and turns crisper and more technically sound. We also need to work on our kicking. We are very weak in that area compared to other teams.”

Dearden swam to a first-place finish in the 200-yard IM, with Grady Killian in 3rd place and Collin Smith in 5th place.

Hankin finished 2nd in the 100-yard butterfly race and 3rd in the 50-yard freestyle at Riverton.

In the 500-yard freestyle event, Runnion finished first, Dearden 5th, Killian 6th, Smith 7th and Clarke 9th place.

Tanner Brown swam to a second-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke. The Ranger team of Garver, Clarke, Scigliano and Brown swam to second place in the 400-yard freestyle relay.

In the 200-yard freestyle, Runnion earned third, Garver fifth and Clarke sixth.

Scigliano finished 5th in the 100-yard freestyle, with Garver behind him in 6th place and Brown finishing the race in 10th place.

The Ranger boys’ swim team will compete at Rock Springs on Thursday, Dec. 20, then swim at the Laramie Invite on Dec. 28 and 29.