NHS swimmers continue working to improve times

The Lady Dogie Swim Team had a light week of competition, with only one meet on Saturday in Douglas. Five teams competed at the invitational, and head coach Doug Scribner felt good about the way his team performed in the longer meter pool, especially considering the swimmers are feeling some fatigue at this point in the season.
“For being tired, I think we had a pretty good day,” Scribner began. “Also, we changed things up with the relays, which was a fun way to motivate the girls a little bit.”
For the relays, Scribner named two captains, Raeleigh Shipp and Lydia Anderson, and had them put together two teams for the 200 Medley and 400 Free Relays. He also entered them with no times so they would be able to swim in adjacent lanes where they would be able to compete against each other. 
“They only scored one of the teams, because the other swam exhibition,” Scribner explained. “But it was fun to have them race each other and I sweetened the deal by letting them know that whoever won between the two teams got to run a set this week in practice.”
After converting from meter to yard time, there were four swimmers who swam personal bests in six different races. 
Anderson improved in the 50 Freestyle and 100 Breaststroke, Shipp was faster in the 50 and 100 Freestyle, Jaydenn Nelson was faster in the 100 Breaststroke and Veronica Ayers improved in the 100 Freestyle. 
“I don’t think the girls thought they swam as well as they did,” Scribner said. “I think it surprised Lydia that she PR’d in her two races because she said she felt tired.”
Scribner noted that all his swimmers have been working on some technique in the freestyle. 
“We’re trying to adjust some posturing to get faster,” he reported. “We’ve been using a lot of parachutes to get stronger, so now we are just trying to cut time with some technique tweaks.”
The work appears to be paying off as 50 Freestyle times are improving weekly.
“These are the fastest times we’ve put up in a long time, and we have improved in our 200 Freestyle Relay for the past three weeks,” Scribner noted. “The girls were giving me a hard time about the 2 Free relay being my favorite now, after the 400 has always been in the past.”
Unfortunately, it’s not just the Lady Dogies who are speedy in that short sprint. Across the board in 3A, everyone is swimming fast in the 50 Freestyle, so Scribner’s crew still has to cut time to prevail over other schools.
As the end of the season is growing near, Scribner noted that Shipp, who has been working toward qualifying in the 200 Freestyle, has a plan to accomplish that goal.
“Raeleigh is looking to qualify in Laramie in two weeks,” he explained. “She’s going to try it again this weekend in Buffalo, and if she doesn’t make it, she’ll plan to wear her racing suit to give herself a slight advantage in Laramie.”
Scribner went on to explain that Shipp’s biggest hurdle this season has been getting in the proper mind-set to reach the 3A qualifying time.
“Last year when we went to Gillette, she had determined that she was going to qualify so she just needs to adopt that mentality, and I’m confident she will get it done this year too,” he nodded. 
This week is another solo competition for the team as they travel to Buffalo for a quad on Friday.