Team shows improvement

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The Lady Dogies swim team played host to several teams Friday and Saturday with the Newcastle Duals on Friday followed by the Newcastle Invitational on Saturday. After a tough week of practice, head coach Doug Scribner’s squad was admittedly tired going in, however still showed improvement.
“We made modest improvements, compared to previous weeks,” he admitted. “They complained about being sore all week, so any improvement is good in that situation.”
Hannah Gross headed into the weekend qualified with 4A times in all swimming events except the 500 Free. The junior remedied that situation by killing the grueling race on Saturday with a lifetime best time of 5:46, four seconds faster than her previous best.
“Hannah swam so well and she was excited,” Scribner exclaimed. “She had a lot left as she neared the end of the race, so she picked it up in the last 75 meters and put up really good splits. We did a lot of weight training over the summer and I think she is starting to see the benefits of that now.”
The 4A qualifying time for the 500 Free is 6:10, so Gross finished far under that and nearly 25 yards in front of the second place swimmer. She also improved her times in the 200 IM, cutting three and a half seconds, and the 100 Butterfly where she shaved off over two seconds.
Becca Henkle was the only diver on the squad to compete both days, and though she was still a little short of qualifying, Scribner claimed that her execution was improved.
“Becca did well, and if she hadn’t failed her one twist dive on Saturday, she definitely would have qualified for state,” he declared. “She struggles with that dive, so I think that this week when we go to Buffalo and they don’t require a twist might be the meet where she makes the qualifying score.”
Kyah Miller missed out on diving on Friday, but came back on Saturday and executed some of her best dives of the season, according to Scribner. She also cut an astounding eight seconds off her time in the 50 Free when she swam the anchor leg of the 200 Medley Relay in 46 seconds.
“Kyah came in three mornings this week to work solely on freestyle and that paid off,” Scribner smiled. “We worked on breathing, coordinating her kick and on flip turns so she had a huge improvement this weekend.”
Rayleigh Shipp also saw some significant time drops. On Friday, the freshman cut an impressive five and a half seconds off her 100 Free, and one and a half seconds off her 50 Free as she swam the lead off leg of the 200 Free Relay.
Dakotta Wheeler competed in diving on Saturday and added a new dive to her repertoire. In addition, she took over three and a half seconds off her best time in the 100 backstroke.
“Dakotta dove well and now knows the reverse dive, so she can now execute all of her dives, which is great,” Scribner nodded. 
Other swimmers who saw improvements included Moriahn Kenney who cut time in both the 100 and 50 Free, as well as Lydia Anderson who improved in the 50 Free.
The Lady Dogies have only a dual in Buffalo scheduled for Friday this week. This is no ordinary meet however, because the teams are going to mix it up a little. 
“We are going to split up our swimmers into an orange and a black team to create equally matched squads,” Scribner explained. “The relays and all the individual events will be intermixed to create the most competitive situation we can for the girls.”