Friday and Saturday Jan. 10-11, the Rangers swam in Rock Springs and Evanston. There were some challenging swims and some overall personal records. 

Rock Springs was a meet that was meant to challenge the Rangers. They took on 4A Evanston, Green River and Rock Springs as well as 3A Lyman. 

Senior Collin Smith had a great day in the 200 and 500 freestyles in Rock Springs.

 Smith swam a season best in the 200 freestyle and just missed qualifying in that event. He also swam a great race in the 500, again just barely missing a state qaulifying time in that event. 

“Collin has been working his tail off this season. I am happy to see so much drive in him. He has always been our distance guy, but this season he seems more driven,” said coach Amanda Aimone. “It would be great for him to qualify in the two distances and even better for the team.” 

Raydin Scigliano, Noah Hankin, Matt Garver, and Connor Dietrich also had great swims in the 200 freestyle with all four of them swimming season bests. Benjamin Wergin also had a season best in the 200 and placed fourth. 

In the 200 individual medley Grady Killian had a personal best swim and barely missed a qualifying time. He placed 10th in that event. 

In the 50 free Brayden Dearden swam a personal best time of 25.01 and placed secondin the event. Easton Rydstrom had a great swim in that event as well and placed nineth. 

Raydin Scigliano had a great day on the board. Scigliano scored 171.50 to place second and added a new dive to his line-up. 

Aiden Runnion swam a season best in the 100 fly and placed sixth with Noah Hankin placing 10th in that same event. 

For the 100 freestyle, the Rangers had Easton Rydstrom, Grady Killian and Seth Krell all swim season personal records. Krell placed fourth, Rydstrom ninth and Killian 10th. 

In the 500 freestyle Collin Smith had a gret showing, but he wasn’t the only Ranger to swim it. Garver, Darren Smith, Shaun Nelson, and Connor Dietrich all swam great races with Dietrich, Nelson, and Garver swimming season bests. 

The 200 free relay of Wergin, Runnion, Dearden, and Krell swam a season best of 1:39.21 and placed second. 

In the 100 backstroke Wergin and Krell were up again. Wergin swam hard to a fourth place finish and Krell swam a little tired and come in 9th place. 

The last race before the 400 free relay would see Runnion and Dearden swim great races placed first and third. 

The final race, the 400 free relay, saw Wergin, Runnion, Krell, and Dearden swim to a third place finish. 

In Evanston the Rangers were looking to cut some time and race. There were multiple races where the Rangers did a great job and cut time. 

The Rangers swam against the same teams as the day before, but Rawlins would join them. 

Some highlights from the Evanston meet were the 200-medley relay of Wergin, Runnion, Dearden and Krell who swam to a third place finish. 

In the 200 individual medley, Aiden Runnion swam a season best to place third in the event, while Seth Krell also swam a season best to place sixth. 

The 50 freestyle saw the Rangers cut a lot of time and in that race it is very hard to do. Connor Dietrich, Michael Clarke, Matt Garver and Ben Wergin all had season best times with Dietrich and Garver swimming all-time bests. The most exciting thing about that 50 for the Rangers was Matt Garver swimming a state qualifying time of 25.49. Garver punches his ticket to state with that swim. 

For diving the Rangers loan diver, Raydin Scigliano dove his first 11-dive format of the season and did a great job. Scigliano placed second in the event with a score of 293.25. 

The 100 fly had Grady Killian and Brayden Dearden racing for top spots. Dearden swam to a third-place finish in that event and had a season best time. Killian ended up 10th with another personal best time. 

The 100 freestyle would be much like the 50 freestyle with a lot of time cut for the Rangers. Again, Dietrich and Garver swam personal best times in the event. Wergin  swam a season best with Rydstrom giving great effort. Wergin placed fourth in that event. 

The Smith brothers would be up next with the 500 freestyle. Both put forth great effort and swam hard, but only Collin placed eighth in that event. 

The 200-freestyle relay of Garver, Dietrich, Killian and Collin Smith placed sixth with a season best time for that relay. 

The Rangers had three guys in the 100 backstroke in Evanston and they swam their guts out. Shaun Nelson swam a personal best time of 1.23.19, Michael Clarke swam a season best time of 1.17.00 and Seth Krell swam a strong backstroke with a time of 1:08.83. Krell place d fifth in the event. 

Again, the Rangers had three guys in the 100 breaststrokes with Killian, Runnion and Dearden. Runnion led the Rangers with a second place finish, Dearden fourth, and Killian ended up sixth. 

“Our second half of the swim meet was really strong with the fly, back and breaststroke. We were able to score a lot of points,” said coach Aimone. 

“I was really happy with how the Rangers raced today. They really went out and wanted to beat some teams!”

Before the 400 free relay the Rangers were ahead of Rawlins. They needed to beat Rawlins in that event to stay ahead, but they were unable to do it. Rawlins swam a tough race, but the Rangers went out racing. The relay team of Wergin, Runnion, Dearden and Krell would finish fifth. 

The Rangers are back on Friday, Jan. 17, at home. The Rangers’ home meet starts at 5 p.m.