Shipp qualifies for the ‘Ship

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Editor
 
The Lady Dogies got a trial run at the state meet last weekend as they joined 18 other 3A and 4A teams in Gillette for a pre-invite on Friday and an invitational meet on Saturday. On Saturday, Raeleigh Shipp became only the second of head coach Doug Scribner’s crew to punch her ticket for state competition, doing so in both the 100 and 200 Freestyle open races. 
“Raeleigh had a very good weekend and was able to qualify in two events on Saturday,” Scribner said. “She had pretty great time drops in each to qualify.”
After having competed in the 200 Free only twice all season, the first time being the first weekend of the year, Scribner was confident that Shipp had it in her to qualify in that event. His confidence was justified as she took off over 10 seconds from her best time to get just under the mark with her finish of 2:19.55. 
“Raeleigh blew it out of the water,” Scribner said. “She was, again, seeded the fastest in her heat, so she had to race herself like she had to in Buffalo. She won her heat by half a pool, and she did very well in that race by doing the little things she’d been working on.”
According to Scribner, Shipp also prepared by calling Hannah Gross, who was the state champion in the 200 Free last year, to ask her how she swam it. 
“Hannah talked her through it length by length, turn by turn, what she was thinking about, and what she did, and Raeleigh said that as she was swimming, she just listened to Hannah’s advice,” Scribner described. “So that was really cool, and it was just really exciting for her to qualify.”
Shipp followed up her qualification in the 200 Free by dropping another 1.39 seconds from her time in the pre-meet on Friday to qualify in the 100 Free with a time of 1:03.39.
In addition to it being a significant two days for Shipp, the two meets themselves were huge. With 19 teams in attendance, and many of those being large, 4A squads, there were many events with many heats. 
“We haven’t been able to have these meets in two years, and with state taking place in Gillette, a lot of teams wanted to compete there,” Scribner explained. “With the meet as big as it was, there might have been 45 minutes between races. For example, there were 17 heats of the 50 Free running 10 lanes, so 170 kids competed in that event.”
The Lady Dogies had been focusing on the weekend in Gillette for two weeks, so according to Scribner, they’ve been resting and talking about the things they needed to do, and as a result, had had some fast swims.
On Friday, Lilly Ralls dropped 3.5 seconds in the breaststroke, while Rebekah Olson took off 3 seconds in the backstroke. Lydia Anderson dropped 1.7 seconds in the backstroke as well, and Hailey Beastrom shaved nearly 3 seconds off her 200 Free. 
Shipp started her push for a qualifying time in the 100 Free as she dropped nearly .5 seconds from her personal best time. 
“In the back of my mind, I was thinking that we always swim a little more tired than we hoped on the first day,” Scribner admitted. “But, we swam pretty well on Friday, so I was thinking that we would do well on Saturday, since that’s what we’ve done consistently throughout the season.”
The 200 Medley Relay performed well over the course of the two days, dropping 4 seconds from their time from Friday to Saturday. Anderson and Beastrom were on their best split times, and Ralls was 2 seconds faster on her split. 
“Lydia was finally feeling good and was able to race 100% this weekend,” Scribner explained. “She dropped almost a second in the 100 Free, which was her goal, and she is determined to be under a minute at state, and now she is confident and pumped to go do that.” 
Anderson also took off nearly .2 seconds in the breaststroke which Scribner stated was very exciting for her. 
“She doesn’t really like the breaststroke, so she is almost disappointed when she continues to get faster each time she races,” Scribner laughed. “She’s got great technique because we’ve been working on it all season as she’s been recuperating, but she doesn’t really want to race it.”
Beastrom is now only 3 seconds away from qualification in the backstroke, so she has the potential to hit that mark, while Anderson is only 2 seconds away in that event as well. 
“Our time in the 400 Free Relay was also our best time so far,” Scribner added. “At 4:45, most of the girls were anywhere between 1 to 4 seconds faster than they normally are on their splits which is great.” 
The 3A East Conference meet is set for Worland this Friday and Saturday. Diving starts at 3 p.m. on Friday, followed by swimming, which will start at approximately 5. In order to advance to finals, swimmers must make it into the top 12 to compete on Saturday. 
“The girls are pretty excited after this weekend,” Scribner said. “Hailey and Lydia are both close in the back, so hopefully we can get them there in the next two weeks, and our 400 Free Relay looks pretty good for finals after this weekend.”