Thomas Audley hitting his stride in sprint freestyles for Cheyenne East

Feb. 15—CHEYENNE — Thomas Audley has been swimming for as long as he can remember.

The Cheyenne East junior was started in lessons because his mother thinks swimming is an invaluable life skill. Audley eventually migrated to a swimming club as a way to strengthen his skills while also expending some of the boundless energy of an elementary schooler.

Audley was an outlier as a club swimmer because he didn't compete. That changed during his seventh grade year at Carey Junior High.

"My mom used to tell me that swimming could end up saving my life some day," Audley said. "It was also a way for me to stay active and be healthy and I wasn't that concerned with competing. That has obviously changed as I've gotten older. It's become more of my own thing."

This year, Audley is seeing the fruits of his increased commitment to the sport. He placed third in the 100-yard freestyle at the Class 4A East Conference meet Feb. 3 in Gillette. Audley also finished fourth in the 50 free.

The 17-year-old will compete in both events when the 4A state meet starts at 2 p.m. today in the Laramie High Natatorium. The finals are slated for 10 a.m. Friday.

Audley competed in the 50 and 100 free at last year's state meet, narrowly missing out on a spot in the 50 free consolation final. His time of 23.77 seconds was 14th-fastest during the preliminaries and eight-hundredths of a second from advancing.

Audley's season-best 23.15 is the 10th-best 50 free time this winter, while his season-best 51.02 in the 100 free is the eight-best in the state.

"This is the first year I've been able to contribute to my team in a way that I haven't been able to in the past," said Audley, who also beat the 4A state qualifying standard in the 100 butterfly this season. "It's pretty exciting to start winning races or placing high enough to win medals and things like that.

"Before, I always looked at swimming as an individual thing where I compared how I'm doing this week to how I was doing last week. Recently, I've started thinking about how my performance and my improvement helps our team achieve its goals."

East coach Mark Dobler has seen Audley's commitment to the team shine through in his role as a team captain.

"He's trying to pull up the people around him and hold his teammates accountable when it's necessary," Dobler said. "He wants them all to get better, so he's pushing them in practice just as much as he's pushing himself.

"He's really gone from looking at swimming as an individual sport to one where the whole team needs to work to get better."

Dobler worked with Audley in middle school and saw the potential for what he is achieving now.

"He had the ability to go out and put a few strokes together, but the whole technique wasn't quite there," Dobler said. "It's taken us a couple years to work out the technique, but he was driven and hard working. He had a little bit of a setback when he got really sick at the end of last year, but you could tell he was progressing and developing.

"The more things worked out, the more confident he got. You could really see that coming out. It's exciting to see all of that ability coming together."

Audley has always preferred the sprint freestyle events. They also suit his build and cardio vascular endurance.

"I've tried the 200 and 500, and I've never really been any good at them," Audley said. "I like the 50 and 100 because they're super intense and super high-paced. Those races are over before you know it."

Audley finding a home in the sprint freestyles has benefited East, Dobler said.

"That was kind of a hole for us for a few years," the coach said. "He's really developed into a sprinter. He has much better pure talent in the sprints than mid-distance or distance."

On the mat

East, Cheyenne Central, Cheyenne South and Burns-Pine Bluffs' girls wrestling squads will compete in the East Regional tournament starting Friday in Torrington. The Burns-Pine boys will also be in Torrington for the Class 3A East Regional.

Central, East and South's boys wrestling teams will compete in the 4A East tournament Saturday in Gillette.

The girls and boys state tournaments start Feb. 22 in Casper.

On the track

Select track and field athletes from Cheyenne will compete at the invitation-only Simplot Games in Pocatello, Idaho, starting today.

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Jeremiah Johnke is the WyoSports editor. He can be reached at jjohnke@wyosports.net or 307-633-3137. Follow him on X at @jjohnke.