The first winter sport in to the post-season will be the Laramie Plainsmen swimming and diving team that competes at the 4A East Conference Championships.

Cheyenne South High School will host the meet that features Laramie, Campbell County, Cheyenne Central, Cheyenne East, Cheyenne South, Sheridan and Thunder Basin.

Competition begins Friday at 2 p.m. with the diving prelims and semifinals. That is followed by the swimming prelims. All 12 event finals will commence at 10 a.m. Saturday.

Team-wise, Laramie head coach Tom Hudson expects a two-team race between the Plainsmen and Thunder Basin.

“We’re just going to have to swim really well as a team on Friday in the prelims to put ourselves in position to score those points that we need on Saturday. Primarily the focus is gonna be trying to get some more state qualifiers.”

Laramie is at 11 state qualifiers on the season. Hudson feels they should get three more before the state meet in two weeks.

The Plainsmen will also have some opportunities to win individual events. Laramie is considered a favorite in the 200 and 400 freestyle relays.

Hudson says, “It’s really no secret what we’re swimming. Everybody kind of knows where we have our strengths and our weaknesses, so I don’t see a lot of things changing line-up wise. Definitely the free relays are gonna be where we’re gonna try and win those races and possibly even break a couple of conference records.”

Individually, senior McKay Lake in the sprint freestyle races and sophomore Max DeYoung in the backstroke and individual medley have potential to win a conference title.

After a last chance qualifying meet next week in Rawlins, Laramie will host the Wyoming Boys State Swimming and Diving Championships Feb. 15-17.

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