Beastrom is conference champ

The Lady Dogie swim team hosted the 3A East Conference Swim meet Friday and Saturday at Kozisek Aquatic Center in Newcastle. For the first time since 2017, head coach Doug Scribner’s crew qualified 10 individual swimmers and three relays for the finals of the meet, and though the team finished in sixth place overall, they scored 120 points — the most points scored since 2015.

“We thought about spreading out events to get girls in several of them, but that didn’t work out, so we went with plan B, which was to play to our strengths,” Scribner explained. “That ended up being good for us and we had four girls score in the 50 Freestyle and three girls score in the 100 Free.”

For the first time in her swimming career, senior Hailey Beastrom was able to cap off her season with All-Conference Honors in the 50 Freestyle. The senior went into the meet ranked fourth in this event, but the stars aligned to set her up to swim the best 50 yards of her life.

“I got the privilege of swimming against the top seeded swimmer from Douglas in my heat,” Beastrom said. “Everything was set up perfectly. I was in my practice lane, which is lane four and get this! It was event four, heat four, and I was swimming in lane four, so it was meant to be!”

In prelims Beastrom cut 1.97 seconds off her previous best time. Then, in finals, she cut even more time for a total of a 2.07-second
time drop.

“I was totally hyped going into the race,” Beastrom said. “I swam a 27 in practice on Thursday, which I’ve never done, so I knew I could do it!”

Beastrom led all swimmers in both the prelims and the finals, and on Saturday when she came out of her turn, she exploded off the wall, defeating the top seeded swimmer by a second to take first place and stand at the top of the podium.

“I breathe to my right, so I could see Abby during the first 25 yards,” Beastrom said. “Even though I couldn’t see her in the back 25, I knew I was ahead and I just wasn’t going to let her beat me!”

In addition to Beastrom, Shelby Smith also made the highlight reel of the meet when she punched her ticket to the state meet in the 100 Backstroke with her 11th-place finish in the prelims and her 10th-place finish in the finals. In both races, Smith set a new personal record and improved her time by 4.41 seconds in her first swim of the weekend.

“Shelby had a great swim in the 100 Back,” Scribner said. “She is also getting closer in the 200 Free, so we will try to get her qualified in that this weekend in Gillette.”

The 200 Freestyle Relay team of Madalyn Francis, Ruth Rose, Beastrom and Allie Lunstra were third in prelims with a time of 1:54.67 and then, although they improved their time by nearly a second in the finals, finished in fifth place overall.

“We dropped a ton of time in our two-free relay, and we have to go back to 2006 to see a time of 1:53 in that event,” Scribner said. “We can even be faster, though, and the girls have been excited about this relay
all year.”

Looking at times around the state, the fastest time has been posted by Lander at 1:50, however, there are several teams who will be vying for the top of the podium at the culminating event who are in the 1:50 to 1:53 time range.
“This is going to be a ridiculously fast relay at state,” Scribner said. “There are seven teams within three seconds of each other, so it is really going to be a lot of fun to watch and to swim!”

Though she didn’t qualify for finals at the conference meet, junior Veronica Ayers had a nearly miraculous four-second time drop in the 50 Freestyle, carving eight seconds off in the 100 Freestyle.

“Vern just totally obliterated her heat in the 50,” Scribner said. “She won her heat and when she got out of the pool, she was just beaming. That was pretty awesome!”

The Lady Dogies have one more opportunity to qualify individually for the state meet as they travel to Gillette Friday for the Last Chance Qualifier meet.

Beastrom is just a second off from qualifying in the 100 Freestyle and has put up a time that is one second under qualifying time in the 400 Freestyle Relay earlier in the season, so Scribner feels confident that the senior can add that race to her state slate this weekend.