Newcastle swimmers begin push for postseason

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Editor
 
The Lady Dogies had a weekend similar to the one before as they got competition started on Friday in Buffalo where they swam a little tired, following that up with an invitational on Saturday where they were able to swim a little faster. The key difference was that Saturday’s meet was in Douglas at a meter pool, rather than in Worland in a yard pool.
“In Buffalo we were tired, which is okay,” began head coach Doug Scribner. “I told them that looking at last weekend, they needed not to worry about how they felt, and to just go out and swim.”
That advice seemed to do the trick, because the ladies did put up some faster times on Saturday in Douglas.
Not everyone swam tired in every race on Friday, however. Rebekah Olson dropped over a second and a half from her 100 butterfly time and nearly 2 seconds in the backstroke in her lead-off leg of the 200 medley relay.
With the season coming to a close, four Lady Dogie swimmers opted to tackle the grueling 500 yard, or 400 meter, race this weekend. 
Hailey Beastrom and Ruth Rose swam it on Friday and had pretty good times, while Olson and Lily Ralls took it on Saturday in the meter pool at Douglas, which is actually about 45 seconds shorter than the 500 yard race. Olson dropped 26 seconds from when she swam it last year, and for Ralls and Rose it was their first time out. 
“A lot of swimming the 500 is getting through it and having the confidence to get it done. They swim right around three miles in practice, so they can do it, it’s just a matter of getting over the idea of having to swim 10 laps without stopping,” Scribner chuckled. “Hailey and Ruth were pretty funny. Thursday in practice, they asked if they could kick a 100 and then swim a 500 for a warm up so I let them. Ruth swam it in 13 minutes and then raced it in 10 so that was pretty cool.”
After converting times from meters to yards, Raeleigh Shipp dropped a little time in the 100 freestyle in Douglas on Saturday, and Beastrom took a second off her 100 backstroke, which puts her about 3 seconds away from qualifying in that event.
“Hailey took it out hard and was definitely tired on the last 25 meters, however she raced well,” Scribner said. “What helped Raeleigh is that she actually missed Friday’s competition so she got an extra day of rest, which allowed her to race better on Saturday.”
As his team moves into the last couple of weeks of the regular season, Scribner noted that his goal is to have the girls rested for Gillette a week and a half from now. This coming week is also a little less taxing for the girls due to having just the Buffalo invitational on their schedule for Saturday. 
“My plan is to be rested so if they are close to getting a qualifying time, this Saturday or next weekend will be their opportunity to get it done,” he determined.  “If trends hold out, we should do well in Gillette and should also be in good heats, swimming against competition with times pretty close to ours. That will help to push them and get them to race a little harder.”
The ladies have an opportunity to drop time this weekend where they will race in Buffalo for yet another weekend. Things get underway at 10 on Saturday morning.