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WORLAND - The Worland Lady Warriors swimming team got off to a fun and exciting start in Lander on August 24-25. Seniors Juli Warren and Kyra Klinghagen wasted little time in showing why they are among the top athletes in the pool.

During the pentathlon in Lander, Warren automatically qualified in five events (50-yard freestyle, 100-yard freestyle, 100-yard butterfly, 100-yard backstroke and 100-yard breaststroke) for the 3A State meet in Laramie on November 2-3.

Before Warren AQ'd, Klinghagen was the first Lady Warrior to punch her ticket to state during the Lander Relays on Aug. 24. Klinghagen also won the event with a score of 164.85.

For the Lander Relays, WHS girls swimming coach Mike Blissett wanted to use the meet more as a means for his younger swimmers to get familiar with 3A swimming. So for each relay, he was sure to have one of his veteran swimmers leading a team.

"We started our season with the Lander Relays. We placed fourth out of seven teams, but team scores were far from what we were concerned about. Our goal with the meet was for the girls to swim in a bunch of relays and have some fun. We mixed everyone around as much as we could, making sure each relay had at least one veteran on it to help our new girls learn the ropes of high school swim meets," said Blissett. "The highlight of the meet for us was Kyra winning the diving competition and becoming our season's first state qualifier, and all on her birthday."

For the Pentathlon, every athlete competes in the 50-yard freestyle, 100-yard freestyle, 100-yard butterfly, 100-yard backstroke and 100-yard breaststroke, plus diving. There were 150 athletes competing in the pentathlon from 10 different schools there, those being, Worland, Lander, Jackson, Lyman, Kemmerer, Powell, Cody, Rawlins, Riverton and Pinedale. After it was all said and done, Warren stood at the top of the leaderboard scoring 222 points while Lander's Anastasia Cornale came in second with 202. Warren won the 100 backstroke and 100 freestyle, then took second in the 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle and 100 breaststroke.

The Lady Warriors had four finishers in the top 40, with Warren, Klinghagen, Kylie Warren and Ella Stanek.

Two other Lady Warriors AQed for state, Kylie Warren did so in the 100 breaststroke and Stanek in the 100 backstroke.

On the diving board Klinghagen placed second during the pentathlon and freshmen Ashanti Pedraza showed some promise during both days.

"Freshman Ashanti Pedraza also dove both days and improved by 10 points from one day to the next which was pretty exciting. She learned six dives in as many days to be able to compete as a diver, and we have some pretty high hopes for her this season," said Blissett.

Last weekend was the kind of start Blissett was looking for and with this week's meets taking place in Cody, on Friday and Saturday. He knows his team is bound to keep improving.

"We also had a ton of really nice swims from the rest of our girls. I'm looking forward to talking about their progress as we get going with our season," said Blissett.