Swimming: Davis and Thomas pick up state qualifying swims in first week

In their first week of meets, two Worland Warriors boys swimming and diving team members already qualified for the 3A State tournament in Gillette.

Swimming in Powell on Dec. 13 and Cody on Dec. 14, freshman Zach Davis and senior Scottie Thomas were the first Warriors to swim state qualifying times this season.

Davis qualified in the 100-yard butterfly (1:04.69), 100-yard backstroke (1:04.23), 100-yard breaststroke (1:11.02) and 500-yard freestyle (5:34.34). His 5:34.34 in the 500-yard freestyle also won him the race at the Powel Quad meet. Then, at the Cody Pentathlon, he finished 10th.

Thomas qualified in the 100-yard breaststroke at the Powell Quad, swimming a 1:15.29.

"That's pretty amazing to step in as a freshman and win," said WHS boys swimming and diving coach Justin Howe about Davis winning the 500. "He likes the distance stuff which is exciting because Worland hasn't had a ton of distance swimmers for the boys lately. He also qualified in the 100 fly, 100 back and 100 breast. He knocked a bunch off. Scottie got the 100 breast and that's awesome to have that out of the way. It gives him more time to work on his second event. Then Zach is working toward all of them."

Dylan King-Pena, Myles Noecker, diver Keegan Scott and Niels Quigley were among the other Warriors who got their season off to a strong start.

For King-Pena, this is his first season swimming, and he spent the first three weeks of practice learning how to swim.  

"Niels is close to qualifying. Myles did swim well for a freshman. I expect him to qualify for sure. Dylan swam the 50 free and did well for his first time. He's still learning flip turns and starts, but he'll get it and be faster. I also entered him in the 100 free, and he was scared, but he swam it. Going from three weeks ago and not being able to swim to compete in the 100 is impressive. He works hard.

"Keegan did well in diving. He did zero a dive but that's going to happen. But he came back in the second meet and threw all six dives. He can be a qualifying diver, too, he works hard in practice," said Howe.

The Warriors are in Riverton on Saturday for the Riverton Invitational. With the newcomers getting more familiar with the drills in practice, the Warriors have been able to add yardage and get more out of their practices. That added time also gives them more time to perfect their technique for each stroke.

"They're stepping up and swimming on their own. They can look at the board, jump in and go. The freshmen didn't know the techniques or drills and would have to ask, but now they have a good feel for it and can just do them. That makes practice go more smoothly, and you can get more yardage.

"We're working on technique a lot. That's how you hit those qualifying times. Our guys that are experienced are working on fine-tunning and the newer guys are getting those fundamentals down," said Howe.