Swimmers see success at conference meet

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Editor
 
For the first time all season, the Dogie swimmers came away from their week of competition without adding a new qualifier or a new qualifying event to their state slate. 
However, at the 3A East Conference Meet in Douglas on Friday and Saturday, in all events but two, the team did have a swimmer finish in the top 12 to advance to the finals. 
“With seven teams competing, and with it being a really fast meet, it was pretty challenging to get into the top 12, and even tougher to make it into the top six,” head coach Doug Scribner said. “There were quite a few records broken by Buffalo, Powell and Worland, so our guys really did compete pretty well to be able to get so many moved on to finals.”
Zade Orsborn had the most successful individual finish as he made it into the top six in the 200 IM. The senior touched the wall in sixth place in the preliminaries with a personal best meter time of 2:46.98, then improved upon that in the finals with a time of 2:45.50 for another sixth-place finish.
“Zade had a nice weekend,” Scribner began. “Given the circumstances of the meet, he really competed well and swam strong.”
Orsborn was hoping to make it to the finals in the 100 Butterfly as well, however despite shaving off over 2 seconds from his previous best meter time, he could only muster up eighth place in the prelims. As such, he still swam on Saturday, but did so in the consolation heat where he also finished eighth. 
Though Orsborn was the only individual to make it to the finals in the top six, the 200 Freestyle team of Travis Scribner, Nate Strickland, Orsborn and Sam Scribner had the best finish of the day, picking up fifth place with a time of 2:03.12.
“We were actually just out-touched by Worland who finished fourth,” Scribner explained. “And that’s not even our fastest 200 Free relay. We may try to load that up for state since it’s our fastest and definitely our best shot at making top 12 — and maybe even top six.”
Scribner will need to consider individual events surrounding the relay before making the final decision.
Sam Scribner and Logan Olson took more time off their events but still remain just out of state qualification times. Scribner is just about a second and a half from advancing in the 100 Freestyle while Olson is 2 seconds out in the 100 Backstroke. 
“Those were actually the two surprising races over the weekend,” Scribner said. “They were each seeded around 19th so to get into finals for them was great. They both also dropped time and swam for [personal records].”
Scribner finished 12th in prelims in the 100 Free, earning a place in the consolation finals for Saturday. He improved his time by 1.5 seconds in the finals race and moved up a spot to finish 11th. 
Olson improved his season best time in the 100 Backstroke by 3 seconds and his meter time by over 9 seconds. In doing so, he finished 11th in the prelims and 11th in the consolation finals as well. 
The Dogies are in taper currently, and according to Scribner it is going well with his swimmers putting up faster times in their events. 
Sam Scribner and Olson have one more chance to qualify in the 100 Free and 100 Backstroke at the Last Chance Meet Friday in Gillette. Since the state meet will be held in Gillette in two weeks, Coach Scribner is looking forward to his team having the opportunity to swim in that pool one more time before the culminating event.