Laramie Battles for Runner-up at State Swim Championships

A school record and victory in the 400 freestyle relay led the Laramie Plainsmen to second place at the 4A Wyoming Boys State Swimming and Diving Championships.

Laramie trailed Gillette until the anchor leg and rolled to an over two second win. Senior Matt Mittelstaedt led off the relay and was followed by sophomore Noah Richardson and junior Logan Pickard. Freshman Max DeYoung brought home the victory on the final leg, as the Plainsmen reached a record time of 3:14.04.

Laramie head coach Tom Hudson knew they capped it off with a big win.

“We knew that we could beat Kelly Walsh, if we just beat them in that relay, but we also had this goal all year long to break our school record in the 400 free relay. We were three seconds off that in the preliminaries… It came down to Max and they’re (Gillette’s) anchor guy, and Max just tore him apart.”

There were three runner-up performances during last Friday’s finals. Pickard came through with a second place effort in the 200 freestyle. His time was 1:48.78. DeYoung also took second, but in the 100 backstroke with a time of 52.74 seconds. He was beat by only .49 seconds. Laramie’s other runner-up finish was in the 200 free relay. The LHS boys’ came in second behind the Camels by just over a second with a time of 1:28.84.

As a team Laramie scored 179.333 points at the state championships. They finished 100 back of state champion Gillette, but fought off Kelly Walsh, who took third, 12 points behind the Plainsmen. Rock Springs and Green River rounded out the top five.

Hudson added, “We knew it would be a tight battle with Kelly Walsh. I thought Rock Springs would be right in there too, and they finished fourth. It was a great meet. Our kids had best times all the way up and down the board, and Gillette ran away with it, like I thought they would.”

Hudson also said he was really proud of his team, especially during the finals.

“We came back from a four-point deficit from Kelly Walsh in the prelims to end up beating ‘em by 12.

This marked a second straight runner-up finish for LHS as a team.