Ladies keep cutting time

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The Lady Dogie swim team took a trip over the mountain for the second week in a row last Friday and Saturday to compete in Cody and Powell in the Gene Dozah pre-meet and Invitational.  
After being a little short last week, the squad was back up to a nearly full roster for the two days of competition, and all appeared to be ready to compete.
“Other than one injury, we were able to swim everyone else this weekend which was a nice change from last weekend,” head coach Doug Scribner began. “What was even better was that our swimmers and divers continue to make significant improvements.”
While Hannah Gross was the only Dogie to add a new state qualifying time to her slate over the weekend, on Friday in Cody all but one swimmer posted personal bests in swimming events. 
Dakotta Wheeler put up the largest cut in time as she improved nearly 10 seconds in the 100 Backstroke event. While Rayleigh Shipp missed out on a PR in the first day of competition, the freshman did swim the 200 Individual Medley successfully after disqualifying in Cody last week.
At the invitational meet in Powell on Saturday, the ladies continued to show improvement. According to Scribner, Lydia Anderson had the largest improvement on the day, dropping just over six seconds in the 100 Breaststroke.
Gross has been slaying her competition consistently this season, and last weekend she did more of the same, qualifying for 2 more state events in 4A time and posted a lifetime personal record in the 200 Free.
“Hannah had an incredible swim on Saturday in the 200 Free,” Scribner exclaimed. “Her time of 2:02.79 is a second faster than her time last year and is faster than the state time in 3A for the last three years!”
Gross won the 200 IM and the 100 Freestyle in 4A qualifying time on Friday, and on Saturday won the 200 Free and got second in the 100 Backstroke. She had previously qualified for the 100 Free and 100 Back, but added the 200 IM to her state slate to bring her total possible events to six.
Brylee Toth was the only diver who did not compete over the weekend, and though the other three did not put up a PR, according to Scribner they executed several new dives which they added to their repertoire this week.
“Their scores were lower than last week, but they were able to complete all their dives for a score,” Scribner explained. “The level of difficulty was a little bit higher so even though they earned fewer points, that was a great accomplishment.”
This week, the Lady Dogies will host their first home weekend of competition with a quad on Friday beginning at four. Cheyenne South, Cody and Douglas are expected to compete in that event and will return along with Worland and Buffalo for the Newcastle Invitational which will begin with diving at 10:30 am on Saturday.