Divers make a splash in Cody

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
After going a year without a diver on the team, the Lady Dogies are making up for lost time with four this season. In their opening weekend, only Becca Henkle and Brylee Toth had mastered enough dives to compete, however that was not the case in Cody last Thursday and Friday.
Dakota Wheeler and Kyah Miller added three more dives to their repertoire in order to be eligible to score along with Henkle and Toth.
“All the divers put together six dives to be able to score and all improved in their execution as well,”  head coach Doug Scribner began. “Their form and technique is coming along nicely and they are looking good.”
Henkle made improvements in her established lineup, scoring 40 points higher on Thursday than her best day last weekend, and won the diving event in the process. Then on Friday, she bumped her score up four more points to 136 which puts her within nine points of qualifying for the state meet.
“Becca was ahead of the pack through four dives on Friday, but a couple of the Powell divers knew some harder dives which gave them more points due to the level of difficulty. They were able to get ahead of her due to that,” Scribner stated. “It was neat to see her leading that long into the competition and she really looked good so she should easily qualify given she is so close already.”
On Thursday, the Lady Dogies dueled against Cody and Worland, and on Friday competed in an invitational meet against the same two teams as well as Powell and Cody. With only six swimmers suited up, Newcastle team scores couldn’t stand up to their much larger opponents, however, each swimmer put up faster times than they had in their first meets of the season last week.
Henkle improved in the Butterfly and the 50 Free, Autumn Mills put up a better time in the 100 Free, Rayleigh Shipp improved in the Breaststroke while Wheeler did so in the 50 Free.
Given that four of the six Lady Dogies are freshmen, Scribner’s focus was on getting the newcomers accustomed to the high school meet venue and to work on racing competitively.
“Since this was their first real meet, I wanted them to get a sense of what it means to be competitive,” he explained. “In those races where they were swimming against someone who was close to their time, they did a really good job of racing and competing and in most cases, would beat the person who was swimming next to them.”
This weekend, the squad should be back to nine as they tentatively head to Worland on Friday and on to Powell on Saturday. Friday’s meet location is still questionable depending on the availability of Worland’s pool As of now, it is up and running, however if there is a change to that status, the meet will be held in Cody instead.