Newcastle’s swimmers advance at last chance competition

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Editor
 
The Dogies had one final opportunity to put up a state qualifying time Friday in Gillette at the Last Chance Qualifying meet, and the squad posted four new times and added one new member of the team to their state individual roster. 
Freshman Sam Scribner had the best meet of his young career, cutting impressive seconds from his 100 Freestyle and 100 Breaststroke to get under the mark in those events, and Ramsey Gross added the 100 Butterfly and 100 Breaststroke to his already full state slate. Gross has now qualified in every individual event except for the 500 Freestyle. 
“It was a good day for us, and everyone swam really well,” said head coach Doug Scribner. “It was fun to get Samuel qualified, and we had several huge PRs as well.”
Scribner, Logan Olson and Nate Strickland were the three Dogies who had yet to qualify in an individual event as the team set out for Gillette. Though Olson and Strickland finished their events just over the 3A time, both had impressive time drops in their events.
Strickland dropped over 6 seconds in the 100 Breaststroke in his sixth-place finish. When he touched the wall, he did so just .66 seconds over the qualifying time of 1:16 flat. Olson also had a great day dropping more than 4 seconds from his time in the 100 Backstroke. He, like Strickland, found himself just short of qualifying for the state meet, finishing .99 of a second over the 1:08 mark for that event.
“I was talking to the Sheridan coach and he told me he had debated about coming to the meet, but had a couple of seniors who were just a second away from qualifying,” Scribner began. “Unfortunately, they were unable to cut the needed time so they didn’t make the state meet. That was far more heartbreaking than what Logan and Nate went through. In fact, they were really excited about how they finished.”
Scribner dropped 2 seconds to swim a personal best time of 58 seconds in the 100 Free, then turned around and dropped over 4 seconds in the breaststroke to finish in 1:14.30, which is nearly 2 seconds under the qualifying time in that event.
Olson and Scribner were the fastest swimmers in their 100 Back and 100 Breast heats respectively, so they had no one to race to try to cut time. Therefore it was up to them to push themselves to get under the time. Scribner was able to accomplish that goal, and Olson was very close.
“I told them that they couldn’t wait for someone to race, they had to start to race while they stood on deck,” Coach Scribner said. “And then the breaststroke was so fun because Sam and Nate were swimming right next to each other, and I told Nate that Sam was going for it so he just needed to keep up and swim with him.”
Strickland took his coach’s advice to heart and was right with Scribner up until the final five or six strokes, so finished just out of qualifying time.
Gross also swam two new personal records with his qualifying finishes in the 100 Butterfly and 100 Breaststroke. With a full event list to choose from, Scribner is confident in saying that Gross will compete in the 100 Backstroke for sure, then will decide about his other event
this week.
Zade Orsborn, who also has a few events from which to choose, is opting for the 100 Butterfly then will decide on his second event this week as well.
Robert Humes has the 50 and 100 Free on his state docket, Sam Scribner will swim the 100 Free and the 100 Breaststroke, while Travis Scribner will join his brother in the 100 Breaststroke for his individual event. 
“As long as we can keep the momentum we have going right now, we should be in pretty good shape,” Scribner said. “They were excited to swim last week and did well in the venue where the state meet takes place, so I am looking forward to seeing how they do this week.”
The state meet gets underway this Thursday afternoon with preliminary races and the first round of diving, and then will conclude on Friday with the finals of both swimming and diving.