Wolves take 2nd at 3A West Conference Championships

It was an adrenaline-pumping weekend for the Green River Boys Swimming and Diving team as they competed in the 3A West Conference Championships in Lander. They had amazing individual performances, and as a team they worked together and finished in second place. Brady Young was awarded Swimmer of the Meet and tied for Swimmer of the Year with Lander's Dylan Huelskamp.

"It felt really amazing and I was pleasantly surprised to receive athlete of the meet and the year," Young said. "Overall, I'm most proud of our entire team. We had someone in almost every event fighting tooth and nail to keep their spots or move up. I'm super proud of the underclassmen for not only their performances but their team spirit and cheering. I'm also proud of all of the seniors I've competed with for seven years. They all showed up and gave it their all."

Young was crowned the champion in the 200 Yard Freestyle, cutting 1.95 seconds off his person best, and beating Lander's Brayden Brown by 2.08 seconds. Colin Gilmore showed his fast swimming skills, placing fourth in the event, just 0.76 seconds behind Kemmerer's Malachi Villarreal.

It was a fast-paced race in the 200 Yard IM event with Lander's Finn Richards winning first-place, Ryan Fischer placing third, Zeke Reading placing fourth and Aiden Zimmerman placing eighth.

In the 1-Meter Diving event, not only did Braxton Cordova bring home the gold for Green River, he made a huge splash with 478.90 points, breaking a conference record of 478.80 set by Jay Campbell from Thermopolis in 1984. This was a well-deserved honor and a huge accomplishment for Cordova.

"I am extremely pleased," said Diving Coach Rick Barker. "He dove exceptionally well over the weekend. The record he broke stood since '84, which is the year before I started coaching."

"I knew what the record was but didn't know if I would be able to dive good enough to beat it," Cordova said. "My last dive, I came out of the water waiting to see my final score. 478.9 popped up on the scoreboard and I asked Coach Barker if I got it. He looked at the heat sheet and said I got it by 0.1 points. My goal was to win conference, so it felt good to also beat a record that had stood for so long."

It was overall a great weekend for the divers, with four boys placing in the top six.

The 100 Yard Butterfly event was won by Lander's Reed McFadden, while Zeke Reading came in third place, just 1.36 seconds behind Lander's Benny Kulow.

Ryan Fischer won an All-Conference award for his second place finish in the 100 Yard Freestyle event. He was 2.2 seconds behind the winner of the event, Dylan Huelskamp.

In the grueling 500 Yard Freestyle event, Brady Young took another outstanding first-place finish, breaking his own record of 4:58.31 from 2022. Colin Gilmore came in an impressive third place, cutting 3.5 seconds off his personal best.

Green River's "A" relay team placed second in the 400 Yard Freestyle Relay event, winning All-Conference awards. The team included Fischer, Zimmerman, Gilmore and Young.

Head Coach Colleen Seiloff was very pleased with how the boys performed at conference. She said they had a lot of time cuts and they had been practicing very hard all week long.

"They stepped up and were very competitive," added Seiloff. "It was fun!"

The qualified swimmers and divers are preparing for state. The team will start the tapering process and use the Last Chance meet as a practice for the state meet. Seiloff feels they need to use this last meet to focus on the boys that haven't qualified and the boys that want to pick up a second event.

Green River is hosting the Last Chance meet at 4 p.m. today at the Aquatic Center. Next week, they will travel to Gillette for the 3A State Championships that take place on February 16 and 17.

200 Yard Medley Relay

3. GRHS A 1:50.06, (Aiden Zimmerman, Ryan Fischer, Zeke Reading, Ashton Hafner)

200 Yard Freestyle

1. Brady Young, 1:48.56

4. Colin Gilmore, 1:57.09

200 Yard IM

3. Fischer, 2:10.87

4. Reading, 2:14.22

8. Zimmerman, 2:21.95

50 Yard Freestyle

10. Hafner, 24.92

1 Meter Diving

1. Braxton Cordova, 478.90

3. Keegan Gailey, 416.70

4. River Kirts, 404.00

6. Kyle Kight, 363.10

100 Yard Butterfly

3. Reading, 57.68

8. Zimmerman, 1:02.95

10. Trace Erdmann, 1:07.69

11. Dallan Owens, 1:08.33

100 Yard Freestyle

2. Fischer, 50.94

8. Hafner, 54.71

500 Yard Freestyle

1. Young, 4:57.33

3. Gilmore, 5:10.07

200 Yard Freestyle Relay

3. GRHS A 1:37.56 (Reading, Gilmore, Hafner, Young)

100 Yard Backstroke

9. Wadsworth, 1:05.43

100 Yard Breaststroke

10. Erdmann, 1:15.33

400 Yard Freestyle Relay

2. GRHS A 3:33.19 (Fischer, Zimmerman, Gilmore, Young)

Team Rankings

1. Lander: 386

2. Green River: 255

3. Evanston: 186

4. Kemmerer: 144

5. Lyman: 118

6. Rawlins: 111

7. Sublette: 87