A family swimming affair
The Dogie Swim team was down from seven to two on Dec. 28, as head coach Doug Scribner took his sons Sam and Lucas to Gillette to participate in the Reindeer Holiday Open. The remaining team members were busy with family holiday plans, however, it worked out well for the Scribners given that Sam and Lucas missed out on the last weekend of competition before the Christmas break due to conflicts with scheduling from another school activity.
“Mostly everyone was on vacation, but it was great for Samuel and Lucas to be able to get in a meet over Christmas break,” Scribner said. “So they each did two events and I just told them to be competitive and represent the team well.”
Sam and Lucas took full advantage of their time in the water, and indeed represented Newcastle High School in great form, by putting up lifetime personal bests in the two events they each competed in.
Not only did Sam put up two personal records, he also posted 3A State qualifying marks in both the 50 Freestyle and the 1 Meter Diving, where he improved his score by over nine points and beat the other five divers, with the second-place swimmer coming in over 20 points behind him.
Sam upped the ante as well, given that he had a year’s hiatus from swimming last year and hadn’t dove since his eighth grade year.
“Sam is doing pretty well given it’s been awhile since he’s competed in the pool,” Scribner said. “Scoring 178 points in diving puts him about right in the middle of the conference, so that is looking good for him.”
In the 50 Freestyle, Sam finished fifth and improved his time by .38 of a second, while Lucas touched the
wall in ninth place and cut half-a-second off his previous best time.
“It was really fun for Lucas because he’s just a sophomore and he’s close to qualifying in both the 50 and the 100 Breaststroke,” Scribner said.
Lucas cut 2.38 seconds off his time in the 100 Breaststroke where he again finished ninth. So with three-fourths of the season remaining, he has around six seconds to cut from his time in the breaststroke and just a little over a second to shave off his 50 Freestyle time to get him under the 3A qualifying standard.
“Lucas cutting that time in both races is definitely do-able,” Scribner said. “Just looking at where he needs to improve — like being more aggressive on his turn and keeping his technique all the way into the wall — are easy fixes that can get him there.”
This week, the full Dogie team will be back in action as they head to Cody on Friday, then on to Powell on Saturday for two invitational meets. This will be the team’s second trip to Cody, however, despite the length of the journey, Scribner is pleased his team will get another opportunity to compete there given Cody is the location of the 3A Conference meet.
