Diving dominance continues at state meet

WORLAND — Worland High School junior Caleb Truman dove his way to the Class 3A state championship Friday in Gillette. It was Worland’s fourth title in five years, according to Coach Kristin Kelton.

Truman was the team’s lone champion at the two-day meet that started Thursday. Kelton said, “That was fun,” Kelton said. She said Austin Reddinghouse, now diving for the University of Wyoming, won three state titles. Last year Truman came in second and this year he grabbed the title.

As head coach and diving coach, Kelton said Reddinghouse and Truman have lots of talent. She said her job is more like “being a psychologist” and making sure the divers and swimmers don’t let the pressure get to them.

She said the Cody and Douglas coaches were great as well, offering Truman tips.

Truman scored 347.3 points in one-meter diving, 25 points ahead of second-place diver Hudson Wilkerson of Powell. He had 258 points after the semifinals with a 25-point lead over Noah Maslak of Cody, who finished third.

Truman’s teammate Nick Padilla had 167 points in the semifinals.

Fifth-place finish

Worland as a team finished in fifth place. Lander won their 20th straight team title with Lyman coming in second and Powell third.

Kelton was pleased with the team finish and the performance of each swimmer. “I was really pleased. Not everybody made the top 12 and not everybody made top six but overall it was time cut after time cut. We placed fifth as a team, only six points behind Rawlins. Rawlins is pretty phenomenal,” she said.

Out of 11 swimmers on Worland’s squad this year, eight competed at the State Meet in Gillette with seven competing in the finals on Friday.

Finals results are as follows for the Warriors:

200-yard individual medley: Matthew Kelton, fifth, 2:10.59; Josiah Sanchez, 11th, 2:20.73.

50-yard freestyle: Levi Sinn, seventh, 23.58; Dalton Jeffries, 10th, 24.14.

100-yard butterfly: Jeffries, eighth, 1:00.71; Sanchez, 12th, 1:03.77.

100-yard freestyle: Sinn, sixth, 53.04.

100-yard breaststroke: Kelton, fifth, 1:06.24; Tristan Warren, eighth, 1:08.27.

200-yard freestyle relay: Worland with Jeffries, Truman, Kelton, Sinn, third, 1:36.31.

400-yard freestyle relay: Worland with Joshua Kelton, Truman, Zachary Padilla and Sanchez, ninth, 3:55.40.

200-yard medley relay: Worland with Jeffries, Sanchez, Matthew Kelton, Sinn, fifth, 1:47.90.

The meet was the final meet for seniors Matthew Kelton, Levi Sinn and Nick Padilla.

While losing three seniors, Kelton said she expects to add five or six incoming freshmen to next year’s squad.