Swimmers tired but still improving

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
After a weekend of multiple personal bests, the Lady Dogies’ swim team was a little fatigued in Buffalo last Friday. In spite of that, there were still a few who pushed through to put up good numbers.
“Everyone is tired but that’s to be expected at this time of the season. We didn’t have the same mental focus as last week, because in practice we didn’t approach the meet in the same way we had the week before,” head coach Doug Scribner began. “But, several girls did some good things even though they were tired.”
Becca Henkle was among those who logged a personal best on the day. The junior scored 141.45 points to put her a mere 3.55 points away from qualifying for the state meet.
“That was definitely Becca’s best and most consistent performance this season,” Scribner nodded. “It’ll be interesting to see what she does this weekend with 11 dives.”
Though Henkle will be required to execute five more dives than usual, the pressure is actually eased a bit. The qualifying score with 11 dives is 240 points, only 95 more than for six dives. Therefore, Henkle needs to average 22 points per dive, rather than 24 which is necessary to reach the magic 145 point score with six.
“If she can put everything together this week, she should be able to get qualified,” Scribner predicted. “Scoring 22-23 points with her dives is pretty easy for her, even on the ones she struggles with a little.”
Though Dakotta Wheeler was just off her best score in diving, the freshman is also expected to compete in the 11-dive format this weekend as she has only one more to learn. However, according to Scribner, Kyah Miller and Brylee Toth are farther from executing all 11, so his plan is to take them out of diving and put them in swimming events to get ready for the Conference meet.
“Since it is unlikely that Kyah and Brylee will have all of their dives learned in two weeks, the best move is to have them entered in two swimming events,” he explained. “It’s better for them to compete in races than to DQ in diving.”
Wheeler turned on the afterburners in the 100 Breaststroke as she shaved a jaw-dropping 18 ½ seconds off her best time, and Lydia Anderson dropped an impressive six seconds in the 100 Free and .21 seconds in the 50 Free as she led the A squad in the 200 Free Relay who went on to put up one of the best times of the season with a 2:03 finish. The other members of the team were Henkle, Autumn Mills and Hannah Gross.
Anderson added time to her 200 Free, however, which is an event the freshman is attempting to put up a qualifying time for the state meet.
“I think the reason she added time was just the nerves of the race,” Scribner explained. “It’s a different mindset when you realize that you’re swimming to try to qualify rather than just to improve your time. She did a good job of turning around and dropping time in her 100 Free though, especially because she was pretty broken down after her performance in the 200.”
Other improvements on the day came from Mills and Henkle in the 100 Free, Moriahn Kenney in the 50 Free (lead off leg of the B 200 Free Relay) and the 100 Backstroke, and Rayleigh Shipp in the 50 Free.
With only one more regular season meet to go in the season, the Lady Dogies will begin taper this week to get rested up for the Conference meet coming up.
On Friday, the squad will travel to Gillette for a pre-invite and will return on Saturday for the Invitational meet.
“We will see a lot of teams on both days, but Friday’s meet will go pretty quickly,” Scribner stated. “We will see Buffalo, Douglas and Lander and then the rest are 4A teams.”