Another Lander Tiger Triumph in the Pool at the 3A Girls State Swim Meet
The Lander Tigers dominated the Class 3A girls’ swimming and diving state championships on Friday in Cheyenne. They won 11 of the 12 events and cruised to their seventh state title in the last nine seasons. Lander scored 431 points and won by 232 points. Vayda Havens, Sara Kearns, Emily Plaisted, and Katy Anderson won two events each, and Lander won all three relays by seven seconds or more.
LANDER TIGERS WIN 3A GIRLS SWIMMING AND DIVING STATE CHAMPIONSHIP
Havens won the distance freestyle races. She edged out teammate and defending champion Lara Robertson in the 200 free by 0.29 seconds. Havens rolled to a nearly 12-second victory in the 500-free beating defending champ Robertson, again.
Kearns swept the two sprint freestyle races. She was the only swimmer under 25 seconds in the 50 free and won by 0.81 seconds. Kearns touched the wall first in the 100 free 0.93 seconds ahead of the runner-up. She defeated teammate Chayse Denton in both races.
Plaisted won the 200 IM and 100 breaststroke races. She won the IM by 3.63 seconds and the breaststroke by nearly three seconds.
Anderson won the butterfly and backstroke races. She finished first in the fly by 4.37 seconds and won her third consecutive championship in the backstroke by more than three seconds. In the backstroke, Anderson was the only swimmer under 1:02.
The Tigers rolled to an 11-second victory in the 200-medley relay, won the 200 free relay by over seven seconds, and finished the meet with a nearly 19-second victory in the 400 free relay.
Buffalo was the only other team to win an event
The only event won by someone not from Lander was diving. Horizon Hanson of Buffalo is the 2024 state champ. She won with 365.55 points across 11 dives for her first state title. Hanson beat Hanna Walker of Kemmerer by just over 13 points.
This was the 14th state championship in school history.
Cody was a distant second in the team race with 199 points. Kemmerer and Buffalo shared third place with 118 points apiece.
Wyoming High School Sports Pics of the Week: Oct. 24-26
Gallery Credit: James Yule, Greg Wise, Tony Montoya, Dave Treick, Kellie Jo Allison, Chrissy Sanchez, Leah Powell, Ashley Jessen, Erin Hager, Bridget Truempler, Frank Gambino, Libby Ngo, Robyn Cozzens,