Another qualifier for men

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
Despite starting off the weekend a little sluggish in Sheridan on Friday, the Dogie Men’s Swim team shook off the anchors at Kelly Walsh on Saturday setting several new personal bests and adding yet another event to the state slate.
“We had a hard week of practice, and we swam tired in Sheridan,” admitted head coach Doug Scribner. “But we always swim well at Kelly Walsh and this time was no exception.”
Zade Osborn kept the trend of adding a new qualifier or new qualifying event every weekend as he shaved off .59 seconds from his 100 Free time in Casper to get under the 58.50 mark and give himself the option to compete in that event at the state meet. The junior now has choices given he’s qualified for the 100 Butterfly, 200 Free and now the 100 Free.
“You could tell that Zade’s first couple of strokes in the 100 were just like every other time he raced it, just at his pace,” Scribner began. “Then it was like he realized that he needed to go faster, and he took off. He just really started racing and he dropped half a second to get under the qualifying time for the state meet.”
While there was only one improvement on Friday in Sheridan, freshman Ramsey Gross had a successful day on the board executing 11 dives for the first time this season and accumulating 298.5 points.
“Ramsey is now ranked ninth in 3A diving with 11 dives,” Scribner nodded. “He had a quick week of practice making sure he had 11 dives ready and he dove well, especially considering he missed the last two meets.”
After having their memory refreshed that they swim well in the Kelly Walsh pool, the Dogies put mind over matter to shake off soreness and fatigue on Saturday.
“I told the boys to be competitive and that’s what happened,” Scribner laughed. “I reminded them that we’ve put up good times there so just to go do it again, and they did!” 
Diving started off the meet where Gross once again performed well finishing just a little over a point out of the number one spot and putting up a personal best score of 153.20, five points higher than his previous best in the six dive format. 
Swimming began with the 200 Medley relay and according to Scribner, going into the race, his swimmers felt a little discouraged. 
“The guys were looking at the seeding time for Kelly Walsh which was 40 seconds faster than theirs,” he explained. “I told them not to worry about that because that was the varsity team’s time and to just go out and race the JV team they were competing against.
The team of Gross, Grayson Ramsey, James Cox and Travis Scribner took their coach’s advice and knocked 32 seconds off their time, finished first by over ten seconds, and were just under 2:00 for the first time.
“I didn’t think we’d get under two minutes until closer to state, so that was a really good time,” Scribner exclaimed. “Just watching them, I know we can be faster still.”
Orsborn swam the 200 Free, and took off 3.36 seconds to get under qualifying time by almost three seconds. 
“Zade was worried because he was seeded fastest so he was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to get a qualifying time,” Scribner smiled. “I told him he could and that to be aggressive and race himself.”
Conrad Prell had a good race in the 200 IM, dropping nearly 12 seconds off his time. There was one other swimmer in the race and the two were neck and neck the entire race. The Kelly Walsh swimmer touched the wall just ahead of Prell, however he was disqualified during the race giving Prell the win. 
Gross swam his fastest 100 Free time of the season, while fellow freshman Nate Strickland is really starting to be competitive. 
“In the 200 Free, Nate came from behind in the last 25 to get past the second place guy, and then did the same thing
in the 200 Free Relay in the lead off leg,” Scribner stated. “I told them they needed to race and that’s what he did, and he didn’t let the other kid beat him.” 
The Dogies went one, two, three in the 50 Free with Robert Humes touching the wall first, followed by Cox and Scribner. Orsborn and Strickland took first and second respectively in the 200 Free, Cox won the 100 Backstroke and Ramsey out-touched the pack in the 100 Breaststroke. The Dogies also dominated the relay races, winning all three.
“One of the things that was fun in Sheridan was the 400 Free relay. We did two of them both days, but in Sheridan, we swam right next to each other and everyone was tired because they had swam a race pretty close to the relay,” Scribner began. “They started to be competitive with each other though and that gave them some gas. Travis ended up with a really good time because he was going up against James and the two of them really battled it out so that was fun to watch.”
Scribner is hoping to get more qualifications this week as several swimmers are close in various events. The team travelled to Worland for a quad against the Warriors, Powell and Cody on Tuesday and will host Douglas and Buffalo in a triangular this Saturday beginning at 10 a.m.