Douglas Bearcats Swim & Dive

It was a State Meet full of personal bests for the boys! While the scoring wasn’t in our favor, the boys more than made up for it with personal bests! Our relays fought hard for a spot in consolation finals and all three teams made it to day two. All our relays swam best times over the weekend.

Individually our Divers Mykah Turk and Kal Thompson finished 24th and 27th in the State. This was the largest pool of divers 3A swimming has seen in a long time and it was a very hard competition! Just making it to the big show and placing was a hard earned victory!

Individually our swimmers ended up placing well and swimming best times! Malachy Lehnen ended the season 28th in the 100 Freestyle. Jack Winslow ended up 20th in the 200 I.M. and 21st in the 500 Free. Jeffrey Cuevas capped off his senior season with a pair of 8th places in the 200 I.M. and the 100 Butterfly. He swam the I.M. within 2 seconds of the DHS record and nailed his goal of a :56 in the Fly.

It was a season of highs and lows and the boys rolled with everything that came our way!

Thanks for representing the Bearcats! We’re proud of you!

Whew!! After a long season the Bearcats have arrived at the end! Today was our Last Chance qualifier meet in Gillette; and what a meet it was! Turning in amazing performances in swimming were Ronnan McPherson, Sage Perry and Ian Harford- all three came within seconds of qualifying and have more than earned spots on our State relay teams.

Divers Mykah Turk and Kal Thompson tried some new dives to add to their State cards, there were a few rough ones mixed in, but these boys are ready for the big show!

The biggest news of the day came from our new Qualifiers! Malachy Lehnen nailed down a spot in the 100 Freestyle and Jack Winslow snagged two more state times in the 200IM and the 100 Butterfly events.

Coaches Molly and Stacy are incredibly proud of the boys this season and are looking forward to three FUN days of practice leading up to the State meet on Thursday in Gillette.

GOO CATS!

What a meet! The boys from Douglas ended up 6th overall.

Final placing for the events is as follows:
200 Medley Relay- Malachy Lehnen, Jeffrey Cuevas, Jack Winslow, Ronnan McPherson-6th
200 Freestyle- Jack Winslow- 12th
200 I.M.- Jeffrey Cuevas- 4th
Diving- Mykah Turk- 10th
100 Butterfly- Jeffrey Cuevas- 4th
100 Freestyle- Malachy Lehnen- 8th
400 Freestyle- Jack Winslow- 11th
200 Freestyle Relay- Mykah Turk, Ian Harford, Sage Perry, Ronnan McPherson- 7th
100 Backstroke- Malachy Lehnen-10th, Ian Harford-12th
400 Freestyle Relay- Malachy Lehnen, Ian Harford, Jack Winslow, Jeffrey Cuevas- 6th

Hosting Conference was a ton of work but a ton of fun too! Great Job Bearcats!!!

What a day! I’ve never seen so many people at our home pool!! Absaraka Conference Prelims are done!
Swimming in finals tomorrow are:
200 Medley Relay seeded 6th: Malachy Lehnen, Jeffrey Cuevas, Jack Winslow and Ronnan McPherson
200 Freestyle seeded 12th: Jack Winslow
200 Individual Medley seeded 3rd: Jeffrey Cuevas
Diving seeded 11th: Mykah Turk
100 Butterfly seeded 4th: Jeffrey Cuevas
100 Freestyle seeded 9th: Malachy Lehnen
400 Freestyle seeded 10th: Jack Winslow
200 Freestyle Relay seeded 7th: Mykah Turk, Sage Perry, Ian Harford and Ronnan McPherson
100 Backstroke seeded 10th & 12th: Malachy Lehnen and Ian Harford
400 Freestyle Relay seeded 5th: Malachy Lehnen, Ian Harford, Jack Winslow and Jeffrey Cuevas

Icing on the cake: Senior and Team Captain Jack Winslow qualified for State in the 500 Freestyle!

WAY TO GO BEARCATS!!

TOMORROW your Douglas Bearcats are hosting the 3A Absaraka Conference Meet! Diving begins at 1PM, Swimming prelims should begin around 4PM.

Come cheer on our boys!!

Shoutout to the Booster Club for the sweet Conference bags for the team and the Chair and Bag for the coaches! We sure appreciate your support!

Middle Schoolers and Parents: The info meeting for students is on February 3rd! Give Swim and Dive a try!

These boys performed famously at our last regular season home meet of the season yesterday! The boys still have one more chance to perform in home water as the Bearcats will host the 3A Absaraka Conference meet this year.

Highlights from the meet Saturday were Junior Mykah Turk qualifying for the State meet in the diving event, Seniors Jeffrey Cuevas and Jack Winslow swimming PR’s in the 200 I.M. and the 400 Free respectively. Freshman Sage Perry proved that he is a powerhouse distance swimmer by swimming the 400 Free for the first time and turning in a team top 3 performance right out of the gate!
All other swimmers saw personal bests yesterday in at least one event! The icing on the cake was winning the meet in overall scoring! Way to go Cats!

We honored the seniors: Manager Ashtyn Kolkman, and swimmers Ronnan McPherson, Jack Winslow and Jeffrey Cuevas. This group of athletes will always hold a special place in the hearts of the team and coaches. They work hard, swim fast and have led the Bearcats over the years in big and small ways. We are proud of you!!

Great dual with the boys from Buffalo tonight! The cats all swam personal bests coming off a tough week of practice. Last regular season home meet is Saturday at 10AM! Come cheer on the Bearcats and help us honor our Seniors!

Photo Credit: Penny Bolinger (thank you!!)

This sweet girl LOVES supporting her brother and his team by “Goosing” around the town! A special Bearcat Swimming shoutout to Natalia for always helping us with this fundraiser!

🦆 The flocks are back!! 🦆 Be on the lookout for them, be kind to them and help support your Bearcat Swim and Dive team!

It was a long weekend of swimming for the Bearcats. We faced off with Rawlins and Newcastle on Thursday and saw several outstanding swims & dives from the boys. Team Captain Jeffrey Cuevas snagged his last qualifying times and now has his pick of events to swim at the State Meet!

On Friday we traveled to Powell for a triangular with Powell and Worland and then swam in the Gene Dozah Invitational meet today.

Junior Kal Thompson flipped and twisted his way to State by scoring a 160.6 in the diving event and taking 4th of 11 athletes on Friday night. Mykah Turk just missed the State cut but dove to 8th overall.

Notable swims came from Co-Captain Jack Winslow in the 200 Free and 200 I.M. this weekend; swimming to personal bests in both events! Freshman Sage Perry impressed with time cuts in his prior events and tried the 200 free for the first time. Sophomore Ian Harford had a fantastic performance in the 500 freestyle maintaining steady splits all the way through the race! Malachy Lehnen came within 1 second of a qualifying time in the 100 freestyle and the team tried out some new relays that look promising for the rest of the season.

The Bearcats are back at home this coming week hosting Buffalo on Thursday night at 4PM and the Douglas Invitational on Saturday at 10AM where we will honor our Seniors! We hope to have a good home crowd this week!

A Big Bearcat Congratulations to Jack Winslow and Jeffrey Cuevas; this seasons’ Team Captains.

Led by these two, the Cats will take to the water tomorrow at 4PM in our home opener against Newcastle and Rawlins.

Come cheer ‘em on!

The girls swim team had their awards banquet this evening!
Some highlighted swimmers this season were:
Hailey Richards- All-Conference, Bearcat Spirit
Hope Capelle- All-Conference, Bearcat Spirit
Dani Shoemake- All-Conference, Most Valuable Swimmer
Hayden Lythgoe- All-Conference, Rookie of the Year
Haley Harford- Most Improved
Lillian Witbrod- Most Improved
Kendal Engelker- All-Conference, McDonalds Athlete of the Year
Payton Yost- All-State, All-Conference, McDonalds Athlete of the Year
And our seniors:
Jeffrey Cuevas- World’s Okayest Manager
Ashtyn Kolkman- The Unforgettable Award

It was a nice evening of celebrating this team’s accomplishments! We are proud of you!!

Reminder for the Ladycat Swim team! Monday night is the night! Lindsay Falkenburg

The Bearcats hit the water yesterday for the first time this season in Buffalo! Senior Jeffrey Cuevas snagged qualifying times in the 200 Individual Medley and the 500 Freestyle! Junior Diver Mykah Turk missed qualifying by only 9 points and turned in a fantastic performance on the board finishing 4th.
Other highlights came from newcomers Matthew Kayser in the 100 Breaststroke swimming to 6th place overall, Sage Perry in the 100 Backstroke in 10th overall and James Byerly coming in at 10th in the 100 Freestyle.
Several top 10 finishes for veteran swimmers Jack Winslow, Ronnan McPherson and Malachy Lehnen rounded out the day!

The Bearcats will miss the Rawlins Pentathlon today due to winter weather conditions but look to travel to Lander and Riverton next weekend.

Hayden Barker, owner of Hometown Printed Apparel presented the Bearcats with a check for $517 today from the sales of our school song t-shirt fundraiser!!!!
THANK YOU one and all for supporting this team! Go Cats!

📣 Bearcat Swim Parents: Parent meeting/Booster club meeting tomorrow night at 6:00PM at the pool! We’ll discuss team suit costs, season schedule, team expectations and recruiting parents for the booster board.
See you there! 📣

Guess what time it is?!? The Bearcats will be back in the water tomorrow! Boys Swim & Dive practice starts at 3:45 can’t wait to see what the boys will do this season! 🔥

The Ladycat swimmers had a phenomenal State swim meet!
All three relays placed in the top 6; the Medley Relay swam to 4th, the 200 Freestyle Relay swam to 3rd and the 400 Freestyle relay ended the day in 4th.
Hailey Richards ended up 4th in the 50 free and 12th in the 100 free.
Dani Shoemake ended up 9th in the 200 free and 3rd in the 100 free.
Kendal Engelker finished 9th in the 200 I.M. and 6th in the 500 free.
Payton Yost earned All-State honors with a 2nd place finish in the 100 butterfly and then got a 4th place finish in the 100 breaststroke.
Hope Capelle was 9th in the 50 free.
Hayden Lythgoe was 7th in the 100 backstroke.

Payton Yost broke another school record in the 100 Butterfly in prelims, swimming in at 1:01.72, beating the previous record of 1:01.79 set in 1992.

As a team, the girls took 4th place overall losing to Powell by a mere 21 points and Green River and Lander, who tied for 1st place and are Co-State Champions for the first time in 3A swimming history.

It’s been a season for the books! Great job girls!!

State Weekend shenanigans! Boarding the bus, fancy dinner last night and sparkle-fairies to cheer hard today! Look out 3A finals!!

Today at the last chance qualifier meet in Gillette the Ladycats swam some awesome times! Dani Shoemake and Hayden Lythgoe added qual times in the 200 I.M. and Hope Capelle added the 200 Freestyle.

Sophomore Payton Yost stole the show and swam the 100 Freestyle in :56.52- breaking the DHS school record set 29 years ago!!!!

Way to go!!

Coach Lindsay Falkenburg and Coach Stacy taught the girls how to stretch a swim cap big enough to fit a person inside! Taper is the best!

Congratulations to Coach Stacy Wood for being voted Absaraka Conference Coach of the Year!! You deserved this more than you think!! We could not have taken second place and so many podium places without you!! 💕