Three State Championships Are Ahead for Laramie High School Athletes [VIDEO]
It's the single busiest state championship weekend of the high school sports year. Three will be contested over the next three days.
The 2015 4A State Swimming and Diving Championships are Thursday and Friday in Gillette. The 2015 State Nordic Skiing Championships will be at White Pine Ski Area outside of Pinedale Friday and Saturday. Finally, the Casper Events Center serves as the host site on Friday and Saturday for the 2015 State Wrestling Championships.
4AState Swimming and Diving
The Laramie Plainsmen will have 16 swimmers and divers competing in this year's championships at the Campbell County Aquatics Center.
Laramie head coach Tom Hudson says,
"I'm happy with the number (of state qualifiers). We have pretty good depth. We have pretty good top end power, as well. We're a pretty balanced team... literally could finish anywhere from second to fifth; it's really tight this year."
Defending champion Kelly Walsh is the favorite to win the team crown.
Senior Connor Petty and junior Cas Sheridan are considered to have the best chance at an individual title.
Competition begins Thursday at 2 p.m. with the diving prelims and semifinals. The swimming prelims will follow 30 minutes after diving finishes. All the event finals will start at 10 a.m. Friday.
State Nordic Skiing
A total of 25 skiers will represent Laramie High School in Pinedale.
The Plainsmen will challenge Jackson for the boys' team title. They are led by freshman Liam McInroy.
LHS head coach Rebecca Watson says,
"They know they have to have good races in order to be competitive with that team (Jackson)... One thing that is exciting to me as a coach, and something I haven't seen a lot of in my past years, is that we have that depth; we have that top five guys that are going to be up there."
The Lady Plainsmen are vying for a top three team finish. Watson said she had more individual goals for them.
Friday is a 10 km skate race. The men start at 10 a.m. followed by the women at 10:40 a.m. Saturday's race will be a 5 km classic race. The women begin at 10 a.m., with the men set for 10:30 a.m. Both days will feature interval individual starts.
State Wrestling
The Laramie Plainsmen will have 17 student-athletes hitting the mat this weekend, including 4A East Regional champion Carless Looney.
Plainsmen coach Mikah Kadera said,
"Our team goal is top four at state, and I think we can do that. We've got to wrestle solid, but a top four placement by this team would be huge; and this still believe we can do it."
The first round will start at 9 a.m. Friday. The semifinals are at 7 p.m. Friday. Action continues at 9 a.m. Saturday. The championship matches are slated to start at 5:15 Saturday night.