Swimmers on pace with three weeks left in season

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Editor
 
Only three more weeks remain in the regular season for the Lady Dogie swim team, and Friday in Buffalo the squad performed pretty much as head coach Doug Scribner anticipated for this point of the year.
“On Friday, the girls were tired which is what I figured would happen based on how we swam last week and then how busy of a week we had,” he declared. “My challenge to the girls was regardless of that, to go out and swim their races and overcome the fatigue.”
Though overall the ladies were a bit slower at the triple dual in Buffalo, there were a couple of highlights on the day.
Over the last couple of weekends, Lilly Ralls has competed in the 100 Breaststroke only to disqualify. However, on Friday she was able to put everything together to not only record a time, but to also put up a time faster than any previous attempt.
“Lilly has been putting in a lot of work toward perfecting her technique in the breaststroke,” Scribner said. “That work finally paid off and she dropped quite a bit of time.”
Rebekah Olson has also been focusing on perfecting her technique in the breaststroke. Olson’s struggle has been maintaining the appropriate kick for the stroke, and she also was able to swim technically correct and in doing so, was able to put up her first time ever in the 200 IM.
“Getting the kick correct is her struggle because she tends to revert to scissor kicks instead of frog kicks,” Scribner explained. “Since it’s only a 50-yard breaststroke in the IM, she is better able to make it through successfully for her first legal IM time.”
After a night’s rest, the Lady Dogies went into the invitational meet in Worland on Saturday ready to go.
“I was really excited to see the girls swim faster in Worland on Saturday, because that is where we’ll be swimming the conference meet in just a few weeks,” Scribner said. “That bodes well for us, I think.”
After stalling out for the last couple of meets, Raeleigh Shipp was able to drop time in the 50 Freestyle to get within two seconds of a qualifying time.
“I think Raeleigh puts a lot of pressure on herself, so we talked about working on swimming in races like she does in practice, because her meet swims look different,” Scribner explained. “She looked a lot better in Worland than she did in Buffalo so she dropped time to get to 30.6, and I feel pretty good about her being able to drop what she needs to qualify.”
Lilly Ralls also continues to improve each week as evidenced by her two-second drop in her 50 Free time.
Shipp competed in the 100 Free, a race in which she is attempting to put up a qualifying time. Though she came up a little short on both days, Scribner is confident she will get the time she needs. 
“She looked super good through the first 75, but then had a bad turn on her last wall which made her lose some steam on the last 25,” he explained. “But, she has started to swim more relaxed so she is looking good.”
Lydia Anderson dropped a handful of seconds in the 200 Free in Worland, while Hailey Beastrom made strides in the backstroke in both Buffalo and Worland. 
“Hailey’s goal is to qualify in the backstroke, and she has a fast enough 50-yard time, so now it’s about building her endurance and racing the
100,” Scribner stated. “She needs to make sure that her kick and her arm pace is good. She needs to drop six seconds, but I think that she can make that happen.”
The ladies will return to Buffalo this Friday for a triangular beginning at 3, then go to Douglas on Saturday for an invitational beginning at 10.