Dogies trying to get back up to speed

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The Dogies started out a little sluggish when they returned to action after the Christmas break in Cody on Friday, but after a day of competition to shake some rust off, the team was back on their best times by the end of competition on Saturday.
“Overall, the sporadic nature of Christmas break practice and not having competitions resulted in a slow, tired meet on Friday,” head coach Doug Scribner admitted. “Fortunately, the other teams were in the same boat, so we ended up performing pretty well as a team.”
Newcastle did indeed compete well even though they put up slower than usual times. Senior Garrett Merchen won the 50 Free and the 100 Breaststroke events, while James Cox took second in the 100 Backstroke, with Austen Kenney finishing second in the 100 Free.
The combined effort of the team earned them third place out of five teams, with 194 points, a finish which Scribner noted was the best his team has seen at an invitational in the last four years.
“It was great that we were able to compete, and that we beat both Douglas and Cody,” Scribner smiled. “However, we swam tired, but I think we had a good night’s sleep because on Saturday everyone was back on their best times.”
Though there were no new qualifiers over the weekend, several swimmers saw time drops in their events.
Kenney, Cox and Dalton Parsons each dropped time in the 50 Free, Robert Humes and Travis Scribner each shaved two seconds off their 100 Free race, and Cox also improved his time in the backstroke leg which led off the 200 Medley Relay.
For Parsons, his 29.93 second finish marked the first time this season that he has finished under 30 seconds in the 50 Free. Kenney touched the wall in 26.01, just missing the 26 second 3A qualifying time in that event.
“Dropping two seconds in the 100 Free like Robert and Travis did is significant,” Scribner declared. “Robert is such a fast swimmer, but the flip turns slow him down. That is the only part of his race that is inhibiting his time and if he didn’t have to turn, I’m pretty sure he would have won.”
With his team back into their regular practice routine, Scribner is hoping they will back up to speed and building off their strong performance in Casper, where they had three new qualifiers before going into the break.
“Though we did improve from Friday to Saturday, we definitely didn’t swim like we did in Casper,” he admitted. “We’re working on technique and racing and getting back into the rhythm of things so, hopefully, we’ll be on our best times or faster this weekend.”
The squad will head to Cheyenne on Friday for a pre-invitational with around five teams. On Saturday, they will be in Douglas for their invitational where there will be five teams again including Rawlins, which will be the first time the Dogies will see them this season.