Swim team gets ready

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The Dogies dove into their 2020-2021 season Nov. 30, and though only seven young men make up the team, head coach Doug Scribner is looking forward to seeing what they can accomplish this year.
“I think the season is looking really good,” he nodded. “We only graduated Austen Kenney from last year’s team, so pretty much everyone is returning, so that’s awesome.”
Making up the roster this season are seniors James Cox, Conrad Prell and Grayson Ramsey, juniors Zade Orsborn, Robert Humes and Travis Scribner, and a freshman new to the squad this season is Ramsey Gross.
Of these returning swimmers, Cox qualified for the state meet in the 100 Backstroke and the 100 Butterfly, Orsborn qualified in the 200 Free and 100 Butterfly and Humes punched his ticket in the 50 Free. Humes was also close to qualifying in the 100 Butterfly, but just missed the mark.
At the conference meet last season the team racked up seven personal best times with Orsborn putting up his career best performance in both of his qualifying events, Cox in the 200 IM, and Humes in the 50 Free which also earned him his state qualifying time. Ramsey picked up personal bests in the 50 Free and 100 Breaststroke while Scribner PR’d in the 100 Free.
Finishing the year strong should bode well for the squad this season, however the qualifying times for 3A have changed and are a little faster this year.
“I’m hoping to start off where we left off last year, which should put us in pretty good shape for the season,” Scribner began. “I’m planning on changing some things up to adjust for the new times and my goal for them is to get up to the times they ended on last year as quickly as possible so we can start working on getting to those new qualifying times.”
Though Prell competed last season, he suffered from health issues throughout. After qualifying for the state meet in the 500 Free in his sophomore year, Scribner is confident he’ll be back up to speed given his successful cross country season proving his health issues are behind him.
The newbie to the team, Gross, has competed with the club team for years and has proved to be not only a strong swimmer, but also a talented diver. He will be the first Dogie to grace the spring board since the 2015-2016 season when Jesse Kopp qualified for the state meet.
“Last year Conrad wasn’t in top form, but this year he is feeling good and is really excited,” Scribner began. “Ramsey should do well this season if he sticks with diving, and he is strong in the water so he should pick up varsity high school swimming pretty quickly.”
With one week of practice under their belts, Scribner is pleased to report that his team is looking good.
“The guys are working hard and thinking about
what they need to do to get faster this year,” he nodded. “We are looking forward to competing.”
The Dogies will have to wait just a little longer to do that, however, as their first event isn’t scheduled until next weekend. Fortunately, the squad doesn’t have far to travel given they will host their opening meet on Friday, Dec. 18, and follow that with another home competition on Saturday, the 19th.