Gross sets the bar high for the season

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The Lady Dogies dove into their 2019 season in Lander last weekend competing in the Lander Relays on Friday and the Pentathlon on Saturday. Head coach Doug Scribner was pleased with how his young team performed in their season opener.
“I thought everyone swam well this weekend,” he noted. “For most of the girls, this was their first high school meet, and I thought they responded really well to that.”
Hannah Gross proved right out of the gate that the high expectations set for her this year are valid. Not only did the junior win the Pentathlon meet with 218 points (16 points ahead of the second place finisher) she also qualified for the state meet in every event in which she competed. There were 43 swimmers who placed in the pentathlon, but there were well over 100 competing in the five races. In order to place, it was required that you race, and place, in the 100 Butterfly, 100 Freestyle, 100 Breaststroke, 50 Free and the 100 Backstroke. 
“Hannah swam very well this weekend, and winning the pentathlon is a pretty impressive feat,” Scribner exclaimed. “Lander and Sublette have some very talented swimmers with several among the top finishers, so for Hannah to win was great.”
Because Becca Henkle, Brylee Toth, Kyah Miller and Dakotta Wheeler all dive for the Lady Dogies, though they raced in four of the five events, they were unable to score in anything but diving. As such Henkle earned the top spot for the team in diving placing 15th with 92.10 points and Toth was 17th with 75.35 points. Miller and Wheeler dove but did not place because they only attempted three of the six dives.
“Becca and Brylee executed their six dives on both Friday and Saturday and they did well,” Scribner nodded. “Kyah and Dakotta have learned five so far, so since they were short one dive, they each only did three, but they did well too.”
According to dive coach Hannah Cummings, all are improving rapidly. They are learning their dives quickly and she expects them to be ready to do all six this weekend in Cody. In addition, Henkle is at the point where she will start working on her harder dives so Scribner expects her scores to go up quickly.
In comparing the times from both meets to those from last year at this time, Scribner noted that Gross put up faster times in the breaststroke as that has been a focus of hers so far this season, and that she was right on her time in the rest of her strokes. 
Henkle is a little slower than she was last year at this time, however Scribner was not surprised given the junior is splitting her time in practice between diving and swimming.
“As far as swimming goes, Becca has been focusing on the Butterfly this year and her technique is looking very good,” Scribner declared. “She’s in a different place because she is getting to dive and that just seems
to have made her excited to get out and compete.”
The only other returning Lady Dogie, Autumn Mills, is also a little behind her times from last year which is also to be expected at the beginning of the season.
The rest of the team are freshmen, therefore have no meets to look back on from last season. However, in comparison to their club times, Toth was faster in the 50 Free while
Lydia Anderson and Rayleigh Shipp are right on their times from club swimming.
“I was really pleased with the freshmen, because they did really well. This was a good meet for them as they were faced with a lot more swimmers than they are used to,” Scribner nodded. “High school meets are quicker paced and there’s a lot more cheering which should motivate them. They were very competitive, and they got a taste to see what
it will take to improve in high
school meets.” 
A highlight of the meets was that Lander does a sportsmanship award where the officials keep an eye on the swimmers and give out awards to a member of each team each day.
Toth won the honor for the Lady Dogies on Friday and Miller took it home on Saturday.
Newcastle is on the road again this weekend as they head to Cody for a duals meet on Friday and an invitational meet on Saturday.