Stevie Moyles, Alexis Krall, Brooklyn Hagler and Teryn Thatcher placed 5th in the 200 medley relay at the 3A state swimming meet in Gillette last week. This is the best Kemmerer has placed in that event since 2015. (COURTESY PHOTO / Amanda Aimone) 

The Lady Ranger swim and dive team traveled to Gillette on Thursday, Nov. 2, and Friday, Nov. 3, to compete in the 3A state swim meet.

The meet was a great end to a very trying season. It also gave the swimmers and fans a glimpse into the bright future of Lady Ranger swimming and diving.

The Kemmerer Lady Rangers competed at the 3A state swim meet in Gillette on Nov. 2 and 3. Back row: Skylar Morgan, Stevie Moyles, Alexis Krall, Teryn Thatcher, Sophie Failoni, Brooklyn Hagler, Sydnie Julander, Victoria Peck, Shelby Swann. Front row: Swim team managers Ben Wergin and Brayden Dearden. (COURTESY PHOTO / Amanda Aimone)

The first day, Thursday, was a great start for the Lady Rangers. Freshman diver Sydnie Julander had a big job to do at the start of the meet. She competed against the largest group of divers that the state meet had seen in years.

“This group was extremely talented, and Sydnie was going to have to dive her best to make it into prelims and semi-finals,” coach Amanda Aimone said.

But Sydnie would do just that. She made both cuts of preliminaries and semi-finals to make it into the next day of competition, and she placed 12th out of 21 divers.

The medley relay of Stevie Moyles, Teryn Thatcher, Brooklynn Hagler, and Alexis Krall swam a season best time of a 2:01.21. That time landed them in 4th place going into finals.

“They had a great swim and it was so awesome to see them make it into the finals,” Aimone said. “ What really helped was the backstroke leg by Stevie — that gave us the best start we had seen all season and we needed that.”

The team would then compete in the 200 IM, with Thatcher and Hagler just falling short of the time needed to swim the next day. In the 50 and 100 free, that same senario played out for Krall and Skylar Morgan.

They swam tough, but it wasn’t quite enough to get them into the finals.

However, Brooklynn Hagler would swim a season best time of 59 seconds in the 100 freestyle to earn her a place in the next day’s finals. 

“The first day is always the most important. The girls knew that they needed to swim hard the first day to solidify their spot in the finals,” Aimone said.

The relay team of Skylar Morgan, Victoria Peck, Sophie Failoni, and Shelby Swann would swim to a 12th place finish in the 200 free relay to earn the team a spot in Friday’s race.

Stevie Moyles competed in the 100 backstroke, but just missed qualifying for the finals.

Teryn Thatcher swam to a 7th place prelim finish in the 100 breaststroke, which earned her a swim the next day.

The 400 free relay would be the last for Thursday night’s events. Krall, Moyles, Hagler and Thatcher would swim a season best time of 4:09 to earn an 8th place prelim finish and a chance to swim the next day.

Finals day on Friday, Nov. 3, would really test the Lady Rangers’ skill and stamina.

The 200 medley relay started the day, with Moyles, Thatcher, Hagler and Krall competing.

The team swam tough and earned a 5th place overall finish. This is the best Kemmerer has placed in the 200 medley relay since 2015.

Kemmerer wouldn’t compete in another event until Sydnie Julander took to the diving board.

Julander was the first diver out of the 12 competing. Sydnie earned an 11th place finish, one place higher than she earned in the prelims.

“I was really proud of Sydnie’s mental toughness,” Aimone said. “Her second dive of the day wasn’t her best, but she regained her focus and nailed her last dive and that’s what got her an 11th overall placing.”

The 100 freestyle for Hagler was a tough race, but she finished 12th with her second fastest time of the season.

In the 200 free relay, the Lady Rangers swam a season-best time of 2:02 with the team of Skylar Morgan, Sydnie Julander, Victoria Peck and Sophie Failoni. This foursome also moved up two spots to 10th place, which earned more points for the Lady Rangers.

Teryn Thatcher won the consolation final and came out 7th in the 100 breaststroke after a tough swim.

The 400 free relay was the last event of the meet.

“I asked these ladies to go out and win the consolation final and beat Riverton,” Aimone said. “They exceeded my expectations.”

The relay team of Krall, Hagler, Moyles and Morgan won the consolation final by almost half a pool length and swam the fastest 400 free relay time Kemmerer has seen since 2013,with a time of 4:05. The team picked up 7th place in the relay.

Stevie Moyles, Alexis Krall, Brooklyn Hagler and Skylar Morgan competed in the 400 free relay and earned 7th place at the 3A state swim meet on Friday, Nov. 3, in Gillette. (COURTESY PHOTO / Amanda Aimone)

Overall Kemmerer would end up in 10th place out of the 12 teams at the state meet.

“It takes schools two, even three times our size to beat us,” Aimone said. “Teams like Sublette even combine two schools to be competitive. We don’t have to do all those things to be competitive. These ladies work hard and compete. I couldn’t ask for more.

“From their pool being out of commission to injury, these ladies saw it all,” Aimone said. “Even with all the obstacles, they kept their heads and kept on pushing. They made it through things where other people would have just quit. That says a lot about these ladies. They represented Kemmerer well through the season and the future looks bright.”