Swimmers power through fatigue

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
At the halfway point of the season, the Lady Dogies are tired and last weekend they were also road weary with a meet in Sheridan on Friday and then in Worland on Saturday. Head coach Doug Scribner admitted that his girls are understandably fatigued as the last couple of weeks have been hard, but despite that, they still swam well, just not faster.
In Sheridan, the ladies had to swim longer races than usual due to competing in a meter pool and as such, comparing times to previous meets is tough given the greater distance.
“We probably swam about the same as we did in Sheridan last year, and we were pretty much on our best times,” Scribner began. “But, we’ve had a tough couple of weeks so we were looking a little tired and sore.”
Not only were swimmers tasked with more distance, the squad’s lone diver, Becca Henkle, also was challenged to execute 11 dives rather than six as she has done so far this year. 
“Becca improved quite a bit from her last 11-dive score which was at Conference last year,” Scribner noted. “She scored 241, and on Friday she put up 261 points on the board, and she did so with a couple of new dives.”
Even feeling fatigued, Hannah Gross was a force to be reckoned with as she won both the 50 and 100 Freestyle, and touched the wall in under 4A qualifying time, while Lydia Anderson swam the 100 Free and finished just a little over a second away from qualifying. 
“We swam off events since it was a meter pool so we weren’t too worried about times,” Scribner explained. “But even tired, the girls did pretty well.” 
The ladies returned to Newcastle on Friday and were up early and loaded up for the trip over the mountain to Worland on Saturday morning. 
“This was only our second weekend of doing two meets in a row,” Scribner began. “By this time in the past, every weekend has been back-to-back, but this year is different. Even though everyone was feeling better than they were on Friday, they were still tired from competing the day before and from the long bus ride.”
Gross swam the 200 Free and the 100 Backstroke, and won both with ease. According to Scribner, she felt good, but once in the pool, admitted she was tired. Anderson also competed in the 200 Free and reported similar feelings as Gross.
“Hannah and Lydia both swam in the 200 Medley and then went straight into the 200 Free,” Scribner explained. “Lydia was on just about the same time as she had last year in both of her events and though Hannah was about a second slower than she was in her debut of the 200 Free last week, she won the race nearly 25 seconds ahead of the second place finisher.”
“That was something that was tough for Hannah this weekend,” Scribner stated. “In all of her events, she really didn’t have anyone to push her and no one to race.”
Henkle once again had a good day on the diving board. This week, she executed two new dives, one with another twist and the other requiring a one and a half. Those are two of her more difficult dives, but she hit them both days.
This weekend the squad goes to Kelly Walsh on Friday and Douglas on Saturday. This will be the first time the Lady Dogies will compete at Kelly Walsh and will definitely see a couple of 4A teams, while the meet in Douglas will be another meter pool competition.