It was another big week for the Worland Lady Warriors swimming and diving team. Three athletes qualified for state, one of which was diver Haley Kinghorn.

A sophomore, Kinghorn put together an excellent week of dives. On Sept. 8, at the first home meet of the season, Kinghorn qualified for state in 1m diving. Kinghorn scored 161.05, finishing fourth.

The next day in Powell at the Gene Dozah Invitational, Kinghorn scored a season-best 180.30 and finished sixth.

“Haley Kinghorn qualified in diving with a 160, which was awesome. In Powell, she scored a 180, which was even more awesome,” said WHS girls swimming and diving coach Danielle Warren. “It was interesting too because she said, ‘I’m not going to qualify with this lineup coach because the dives aren’t hard enough.’ I told her that’s not the problem.

“We stayed the course, and I’m super grateful we did. It was a good growing moment. She had a very competent, commanding presence on the board. It was the same on Friday, too. She looked really good. She was super confident and strong. It was awesome.”

Lila Ramirez qualified for state in the 100-yard butterfly, finishing third at 1:14.67 at Worland’s home meet.

Maci Newell added to her list of state qualifying events when she finished fifth in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 6:21.77 in Powell.

“Lila Ramirez qualified in the fly, and Maci Newell qualified in the 500. Friday was awesome because we were at home, and the energy was there. The girls were skipping around and were super excited to swim.

“We had some really great swims, but probably the most memorable was Lila. Ada Pratt was like a fingernail from qualifying in the 50. She and Elena [Gunderson] both swam at 28 something in the 50. And are .4 from qualifying in the 50. Ada has got a second to go in the 100,” said Warren. “We have so many that have already qualified, and we still have so many on the horizon that can. I’m just hopeful we can continue to improve the way we’re improving.”

Beyond the qualifiers and near qualifiers, many of the Lady Warriors are beginning to cut time in their events. Gabby Craft and Caroline Leach are among those Worland swimmers whose hard work in practice is beginning to show on the board.

“Gabby and Caroline both had good meets. Caroline couldn’t even do a turn when she came into the season. From the beginning to now, she’s a whole new swimmer. She swam the 200 and did a flip-turn on every single one. There are so many really awesome things happening with this team,” said Warren.

Two meets are on the schedule for Worland this week. Today, they host the Warrior Triangular at 5 p.m., then finish the week in Riverton on Friday for the Riverton Invitational.

Warren and assistant coach Justin Howe kept the focus on the fundamentals for their swimmers and divers this week in practice.

“One of the things coach is doing on the swimming, he calls them ‘Fix it 50s’ where they get basically one-on-one instruction in practice. In the diving, our goals are working off the end of the board and working the fundamentals,” said Warren. “We’re still working a lot of fundamentals in both the pool and the diving.”