Swimmers enjoy final week of regular season

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
Last week was a fun one for the Lady Dogie swimmers and one where they competed against the now very familiar athletes from Douglas and Buffalo. Having competed against the same teams for at least five weekends of the season, coaches offered their athletes the opportunity to enjoy some fun in the water before the final three postseason meets of the year. 
On Tuesday, the squad headed to Douglas for a quick dual against the Lady Bearcats where head coach Doug Scribner had his swimmers competing in some different events.
“Since it was a dual we wanted to spread everyone out so we had someone in as many races as we could,” he began. “They had fun, but they were a little tired.”
Though there were no new qualifiers this week, Raeleigh Shipp was able to drop time in the 50 Free and Becca Henkle executed her dives well, just missing the number one spot with a score of 155, which is right on her best for the six-dive format. 
“Becca dove well both on Tuesday and on Friday,” Scribner nodded. “She did six dives in Douglas and 11 in Buffalo and she’s got two hard dives that she’s been working on. She is getting more and more consistent on those which is great.”
Friday in Buffalo, the Bison head coach wanted to make it a “fun meet” style so they combined teams and did some unique relays. One consisted of unique strokes such as the elementary backstroke and the sidestroke, one required team members to wear and exchange a sweatshirt, and one required swimmers to carry a football while they swam.
“They were really looking forward to it and they had a lot of fun,” Scribner smiled. “Not only were the relays done creatively, but they also combined swimmers from all three schools into teams.” 
Scribner admitted that last year the meet was more fun because the teams didn’t have to stay separated, and they got to cheer for girls who are from different schools because they were on the same team for once. 
“We didn’t get to do as much of that this year, but we still got to do the relays and they had a lot of fun with that,” he nodded. “They swim against each other almost every week so they know each other, but this gives them a chance to cheer for each other since they’re on the same team.”
Shipp had another good meet on Friday where she cut nearly five seconds off her best time in the backstroke. Henkle threw her 11 dives and finished just three points shy of her best score with 253 points.
“Hopefully, with a little more rest this week, Raeleigh will be able to have another time drop this weekend to get under the qualifying mark,” Scribner predicted. “Becca is still working on hitting her dives consistently. On Tuesday, she hit one for 35 points and then on Friday, the same dive earned her 12. The week before, she hit it well in Gillette, so she’s still learning how to be consistent and I’m hoping that she will be able to peak at state.”
The Dogies are getting creative in order to make the Conference meet this Saturday feel like a real postseason event. Because of COVID-19, the preliminary round has been eliminated so there will just be a finals meet which will make it feel very much like a regular competition. In order to try to get the illusion of a post-season meet, the ladies are going to Buffalo for a quick 2 p.m. meet on Friday and the girls will do the same events both days, kind of like a prelim and a finals two-day event.
Conference will be hosted in Newcastle on Saturday, but it will be half a conference meet. Teams competing will be Buffalo, Douglas and Newcastle, which is pretty much like how the entire season has gone.
With the other half of the Conference competing in Worland on Saturday, they are planning on synching the two meets to try to run the events in tandem so they can award the top six places to the swimmers at the conclusion of each race. The swimmers will also be aware that they are racing everyone, not just the people in the pool next to them. 
Diving starts at noon with the first eight dives, and swimming begins at 1:00 with the final three completed at the usual time during the meet.
“The girls are excited for Conference, but there are still three weeks before the State meet,” Scribner stated. “We have this week, next week’s last chance qualifier and then state the following weekend.”