Wolves dive into new season

The Green River Wolves Swimming and Diving team is diving into the new season with their first practice starting this week.

They will be holding morning and evening practices as they work on strengthening their bodies. They will also be lifting weights in the weight room to keep in good shape. During the off-season, some of the swimmers are part of the SWAT swimming program and these swimmers tend to start a bit stronger. Some swimmers also compete in other sports and weightlifting, which helps keep them active and strong. This year the team plans on focusing on their stroke techniques and strength in and out of the pool. Diving Coach Rick Barker and assistant coaches Katie Rider and Al Clark are a very important part of the team and help the swimmers and divers during the season.

Joe Renfro is the only senior swimmer this year. The rest of the team is made up of juniors, a couple sophomores and a good number of new incoming freshmen. Although Head Coach Colleen Seiloff says the team is very young this year, she is looking forward to working with the boys and seeing how they grow and mature in the next couple of months. Quite a few of the swimmers that are just joining the team have swimming experience, which is very helpful, along with a lot of potential. Seiloff is pleased to have over 20 athletes on the team, with about half of the team being freshmen.

She is also very excited about the divers that have joined the team this year.

"There are a couple freshmen that are great divers that came up from the middle school," she explained. "And one of them actually broke Braxton Cordova's middle school record."

In addition to the freshmen, there are returning divers from last year that made great contributions to the team and are looking to get even better this year.

Next week the boys will travel to compete in the Gillette Invite on December 8 and 9. The first day they will be swimming relays and the next day they will compete in a pentathlon. The first meet is always exciting. It helps the coaches to see the team's strengths and what they need to work on.

"Right off the bat, we will be against quite a few tough teams," said Coach Seiloff.

The following week, Green River will host their first meet on December 15 and 16. The 3A Conference Championships will be held in Pinedale on February 2 and 3 and the 3A State Championships will take place on February 16 and 17 in Laramie. Come and support the Wolves this year during their home meets at the Aquatic Center.