Dogies make waves

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The season is winding down for the Dogie swimmers, and last Saturday the squad hosted half of the 3A East Conference meet. The pressure was on to maintain their perfect season of qualifying a new member or new event for the state meet which they calmly and cooly accomplished three times over.
“We swam really well on Friday, and had quite a few pretty good improvements,” said head coach Doug Scribner. “We had several personal best times and three new individual qualifiers so that was awesome.”
Robert Humes and Ramsey Gross each qualified in the 50 Free and Conrad Prell did so in the 500 Free. Humes had previously qualified in the 100 Free and Gross in Diving, but Prell’s accomplishment was his ticket to compete as an individual at the culminating event.
Prell was within half a second of qualification last week, so Scribner was confident that he would get under the mark on Friday, however Prell exceeded expectations by shaving 4.21 seconds off his best time to finish in 6:11.22.
“What is crazy is when he qualified two years ago, the time was 6:25 and he was just under that,” Scribner explained.  This year, qualifying
time is 6:15, and he was well under that so it was a big improvement for him.”
Humes was super close to hitting the mark for the 50 Free last week, and shaved off .19 seconds to add that event to his state slate, while Gross finished under by .02 seconds to edge his way in as well. Both swimmers’ times are personal bests for them.
Gross also performed well on the diving board on Saturday, finishing second behind a competitor from Buffalo.
“Ramsey dove well and what was significant is that the two Worland divers beat him in six dives earlier, but he beat them in the 11 dive format which is what is required at state,” Scribner nodded. 
Every member of the team finished with a personal best time in one or more of their events and there are still a couple of guys within striking distance of adding a new event with their one remaining opportunity. 
Grayson Ramsey took nearly five seconds off his best time in the 100 Free, so if he can replicate that performance he could add a qualification in that event, Gross is knocking on the door in the 100 Breaststroke, while Prell is close in the 200 Free.
Scribner is also hoping to get four of his guys under a minute in the 100 Free because if they can, he anticipates that they should be competitive in the 400 Free Relay at the state meet. 
The Dogies are still ranked seventh or eighth in the 200 Medley Relay after their 1:56 time on Friday, however Scribner will have to move some people around since Zade Orsborn is leaning toward competing in the 200 Free at state. Fortunately, Scribner has the personnel to be able to mix and match to still put together a fast team for the culminating meet.
“My fear going into state is because there are 13 teams, if we’re not in the top 12, we won’t get to swim on Saturday, and I want to make sure we can get those three relays into the final day,” he stated. “I think with some of our individual qualifiers, we will be pretty close to making it to Saturday but in the event that
we don’t, I’d really like our relays to be able to compete.”
The Dogies have one more opportunity to improve their times at the Last Chance Qualifier meet in Gillette on Friday. After their stellar performance on Friday, Scribner is hoping to maintain his perfect season, and establish beneficial seeding for the state meet.