Dogies take down Bearcats

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
It’s been a goal for the Dogies to get the better of the Bearcats all season, and in a year where they have gone head-to-head with Douglas multiple times — but were just off the mark in each meet — taking the win in their home pool on Saturday was sweet for head coach Doug Scribner’s squad.
“It was great to beat Douglas on Saturday because it’s been a long time coming,” Scribner smiled. “We also beat Cody on Tuesday in Worland and that was pretty cool as well because I wasn’t really expecting to get a win.”
Not only did they pick up a team win against both teams, but they stayed perfect on the season by qualifying another new member to the state meet at each meet.
On Tuesday when the team traveled to Worland for a quad against Powell, Worland and Cody, Travis Scribner punched his ticket to the state meet by qualifying for the
100 Breaststroke and put up
a personal best of 1:16.16 in the process. 
“We just swam really well and had a lot of time drops,” Scribner began. “Zade [Orsborn] swam the 500 Free and almost qualified, however he told me after that he is
fine without swimming that event again.”
The Dogies then had three days to prepare for their duals against Buffalo and Douglas on Saturday, and Scribner reminded his crew about how close they had gotten to beating the Bearcats so far this season.
“We’ve swam against them a few times this year and they’ve beat us every time, but last time was only by about 15 points and that was when we were down two guys,” he explained. “We’ve been doing well and we had some good momentum going in, so I just told them to keep it up and we would see what we could do.”
The team took his advice to heart and at days end, had dropped time in almost every event they raced. 
Robert Humes really poured it on as he dropped 2.25 seconds to get his first qualifying time in the 100 Free, finishing in 56.84. Humes was also close in the 50 Free and is now within two hundredths of a second from qualifying in that event.
“Robert went out really strong and he finally got it,” Scribner nodded. “It was a really good qualifying time in the 100, so that will help him out with seeding.”
Conrad Prell had almost a 10 second drop in his 500 Free and missed qualifying by only .4 of a second. 
“Conrad is getting his confidence back, so I think this weekend when he swims it at home again, he should qualify,” Scribner nodded.
Ramsey Gross took off over six seconds in the 100 Backstroke to get close to a qualifying time, and put up his second consecutive best score of the week in diving. On Tuesday the freshman scored 164.80 and on Saturday, he improved to 165.40 and won the event as well.
“Ramsey has some harder dives that he is improving on and becoming more consistent in executing,” Scribner began. “I know after 11 dives he was ninth, but I don’t know where that places him with six dives.”
Travis Scribner also had a great swim in the 200 Free, dropping nearly nine seconds off his best time. 
The 200 Free Relay team of James Cox, Grayson Ramsey, Orsborn and Humes was fast at 1:48 in Worland on Tuesday and the team of Cox, Orsborn, Scribner and Humes were even faster at 1:46 on Saturday. Up until this point, Scribner had been holding swimmers who were trying to qualify in individual events from participating in the relay that falls at about midway through the meet. However, now that Travis Scribner and Humes have each qualified, he can enter them in the relay and that has made a difference. 
The Dogies still have two more members to get qualified in individual events, but Scribner feels confident that with two more opportunities, both Prell and Nate Strickland have a good chance of making it happen.
Newcastle will host half of the 3A East Conference meet this Friday which will be a repeat of the meet last Friday with just Buffalo, Douglas and Newcastle competing. The other three teams will hold the other half of the Conference meet and like they did with the girls in the fall, Scribner is hoping that the two will be coordinated so that it will be known how everyone places overall in each event.
On Friday, diving starts at noon with the first eight dives, then swimming events will begin at 1 p.m. with the remaining three dives occurring at the regular time.