Lander’s Swim Team Wins States, Makes it 27 State Titles in a Row

CASPER, Wyo. (Wyoming News Now) - The High School State Swimming Meet happened this weekend and Lander not only won the 3A title, but that makes 27 state title wins in a row.

It’s also their 30th overall, and with one of the longest streaks in high school sports, they know it takes a ton of hard work to keep that streak alive.

Sophomore Finn Richards said, “You know, last year after state, we graduated like 100 points or something crazy like that, so Buffalo was really feeling like this year was their year. Like they were going to come get us and so the whole season that was kind of a motivator and we all stepped up huge during finals and we were able to get all of the points we needed.”

Richards himself won the 200 individual medley, as well as the 200 medley relay along with Reed McFadden, Dylan Huelskamp, and Benny Kulow.

When Kulow was asked about what its like being apart of this legacy, he said, “A lot of people seem to think that we don’t have to try to win and whatever but that’s not even true. Like I think we have to work extra hard cause we know we can’t, like we can’t disappoint. And while it might go underappreciated we still have to work super hard to get it.”

Kulow himself also managed to snag the 100 freestyle race for Lander.

Some of the other events that Lander won included the 200 freestyle and 100 butterfly race (Huelskamp won both of those) and the 400 freestyle relay.

The Tigers swimmers know that it takes more work than just practice if they want to win the State Title.

Junior Reed McFadden said, “You know working on the little things that I remember, you know, that are going to help improve those times and pushing myself in practice to make sure I put myself in a position to swim faster times and swim my best at state.”

Senior Brayden Brown also was able to break a school record at the event. He now holds the top time for Lander’s 500 freestyle with a time of 4:59.42.

As Brown looks back at his time swimming for Lander, he knows that it’s an awesome program. He said, “It’s a relieving feeling that we have more swimmers coming up that are willing to go through the training that we went to, went through, to help maintain this legacy.”

Head coach Shawna Morgan also won the Coach of the Year award after it was all said and done. Every year, she has the same approach to winning the state title, and it all starts with her swimmers individual goals.

She said, “I think just concentrating on the team as a whole and what can we do together as a family, as a team to accomplish our individual goals and then use those individual goals to be the best team that we can be is the most important piece.”

Congratulations to Lander for making it 27 State Titles in a row, and we look forward to see if they can make it 28.

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