The Sublette County boys swimming and diving team members hold up their second-place trophy after the state meet in Gillette. See story, photo on page 2B.

Sublette County takes second in state

by Jennie Oemig

The Sublette County boys’ swimming and diving team traveled to Gillette last week to participate in the state meet, taking second place with 166 points to close out the season. “We knew going into these state championships that we had a good chance to finish in the top four,” coach Bob Maxam said.

“For this young team to finish in second place overall is absolutely outstanding. Finishing as the 3A runner-up is something that these young men should be extremely proud of. It was a total team effort and everyone performed to their highest level.”

Sublette County’s Drew Pflughoft gets off to a good start in the 100 freestyle event.

Following preliminaries, Maxam said Lander had the meet pretty much wrapped up and was proud of the way his swimmers continued to battle to the very end to secure second place.

“Lander is the only team in the 3A conference who is able to fill every event with four swimmers, which makes it hard for any of the other 3A teams to beat their depth,” coach Cheryl Long noted. “ … I really wish we could have challenged Lander more, but the depth that they had was unbeatable for all the 3A teams.”

The 200-yard medley and the 400-yard freestyle relay teams consisting of Drew Pflughoft, Kit Pflughoft, John Fenn and Jonathan Hamilton both finished as state champions for Sublette County.

“To have two state champion relay teams is really exciting,” Maxam said. “Our four horsemen did an outstanding job of swimming their best in the 200-medley and 400- free relay teams. John Fenn, Jon Hamilton, Drew and Kit Pflughoft are state champions and they should be very proud of this accomplishment.” Going into the finals, the 200-medley relay team was seeded first and the 400-free relay team was seeded second.

“[The 400-free relay team] dropped over four seconds, beating all the competition to obtain the championship,” Long said. “The four boys did a great job. They knew what they needed to do, and went out and did it. They really deserved the state championship in this relay.”

Maxam said he was impressed with sophomore Leon Covell’s performance at the state meet with an eighth-place finish in the 200-yard free and a seventh-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly.

“Leon really stepped up to the plate during the meet by getting himself in good position during the prelims and then kicking it into high gear during the finals,” he said. “Leon is a strong swimmer and he has a very bright future ahead of him.”

Long said she has high hopes for Covell as well and is looking forward to seeing him compete the next two seasons.

“Leon can be what you would call a coach’s dream,” she said. “He has the will and the want to win and he goes out and gives it his all every time.”

Finishing just 22 points ahead of Kemmerer, Maxam said the fifth-place finish by junior Nick Jaquez and the 12th-place finish by junior Matt Brady on the diving board really helped the Sublette County team.

“Our divers did a good job at this meet as well and they earned us some very valuable points,” he said.

Also during the meet, Hamilton took third-place finishes in the 200-yard individual medley and the 100-yard butterfly. Drew took fourth place in the 50-yard free and third place in the 100 free. Kit placed fifth in the 200 IM and second in the 100-yard backstroke. “This young team does not have any seniors and the future is looking really great for this bunch of young men,” Maxam said. “As a coach, this team did everything that was asked of them and more and I take my hat off to them. What a great bunch of young men.”

Photo credits:  Cheryl Long, Cheryl Long