Dogies edged out of finals at 3A State Swim meet

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The Dogie Swim team qualified four swimmers in five events at the 3A State Swim Meet last Thursday and Friday in Laramie. Though none of those advanced to finals, James Cox and Austen Kenney swam the best times of their careers in their events.
“We swam faster than we ever have, just not fast enough to make it to finals,” head coach Doug Scribner explained. “All of the guys worked so hard over the season, and finished strong so that’s a good thing.”
Just about a half a second was all that stood between both Cox and Kenney to making it to the finals in the 100 Backstroke and the 100 Free respectively, as each finished in 13th, just one place out of advancing.
“They were first alternates by just a smidge,” Scribner sighed. “It’s a bummer, but it is good for Austen because he placed higher than he did last year. James, however, made finals last year, but just wasn’t fast enough on Thursday.”
Cox did PR in the backstroke by .28 of a second, and he also put up a personal best in the 100 Butterfly where he dropped 3.25 seconds off his fastest time. He finished that race 18th in 1:07.71, where last year, he swam it in 1:10.96. 
Kenney swam 24.44 in the 50 Free, cutting .59 of a second off his best time, and a 55.01 in the 100 Free, which was .62 of a second faster. 
“I was hoping Austen would get to 54 in the 100, and to 23 in the 50, but he swam a 57 last year and in the 100 and he got so close to breaking into finals,” Scribner stated.
Robert Humes and Zade Orsborn also competed in individual events on Thursday. Humes finished 22nd in the 50 Free with a time of 26.94. Orsborn swam in two events after qualifying in the Conference meet two weeks ago. He ended up 23rd in the 200 Free with a time of 2:13.92, and 22nd in the 100 Butterfly with a time of 1:10.58.
The three relay teams performed very well on Thursday. Unfortunately, the 200 Medley team of Cox, Grayson Ramsey, Humes and Kenney DQ’d on an exchange so were out of the running for Friday’s final event. Had they avoided disqualification, they would have finished in 11th place and their time of 1:59.47 is among the top three fastest times in Scribner’s tenure as head coach.
The 400 Free team of Humes, Ramsey, Orsborn and Cox finished 12th in both the preliminaries and the finals, but improved from their 4:07.06 time on Thursday to 4:07.01 on Friday. Here again, the final time is among the top three fastest finished in Scribner’s tenure.
The 200 Free Relay team of Humes, Ramsey, Orsborn and Kenney put up the fastest time in Scribner’s time as a head coach by four seconds. The squad finished ninth in the prelims with a time of 1:44.63 and 10th in the finals with a time of 1:44.45.  
As a team, the Dogies came in 12th scoring only eight points, while Lander took home their 24th consecutive 3A State title with 353 points.
“Lander broke four state records as well,” Scribner laughed. “They scored twice as many points as the second place team, even though they DQ’d a relay which lost them 32 points. They could have beaten most 4A teams, probably.”
With the 2019-2020 season in the books, Scribner reflected on a season that was very positive. 
“The boys really worked well together, and they really encouraged each other,” he nodded. “The 200 Free relay was a testament to the fact that I could have put anyone in it and we could have had our best time. They are all fast, and I think they are excited about that and they had fun working hard, probably more than any other year.”
“I put workouts in front of them everyday, and they just did it and didn’t really complain about it,” he continued. “They did a really good job of working hard and it showed with how much they improved from the first weekend to the last.”
Kenney is the only senior that will be leaving the squad next year, so the Dogies will return three state qualifiers in Cox, Humes and Orsborn and Scribner anticipates adding two or three freshman to next year’s team. 
“The improvements the guys made over the season has them all excited to come back next year,” he smiled. “With the incoming freshmen, we may have one or two divers. Ramsey Gross has been diving and doing well, and it will be nice to have divers on the team since we haven’t had any who placed at state since 2015-16 season with Jesse Kopp.”