There’s a first time for everything

It was a day of firsts and a day of improvement for several members of the Newcastle Lady Dogie Swim team as they competed against Worland, Powell and Buffalo in Worland last Friday.
Every week, head coach Doug Scribner enters each swimmer in one new event and in one in which they want to cut time. For this meet, he took a look at where they were a year ago to measure where his returning swimmers are now in relation to this point in the season of 2017.
“I like to give my returning swimmers the opportunity to gauge where they are as the season progresses so they get an idea of where they need to get to moving forward.” he began. “Overall, they were faster than they were last year, with the exception of only one race.”
For Hannah Gross, it was first place that she claimed in both of her individual events, the 200 Freestyle and the 100 Backstroke, dropping about two seconds from her 2017 time in both races. It was also the first time she swam the backstroke in competition this season.
What was not new for Gross was that she swam both of those events in 4A qualifying time so she added two more options in her ever growing slate for the State meet.
Paige Liggett swam the 200 Freestyle for the first time and, according to head coach Doug Scribner, was excited to try it. Autumn Mills also raced that event for the first time and dropped quite a few seconds from her club time she posted a few years ago. In addition, Mills joined Gross as a first-time competitor in the 100 Backstroke.
Madi Townsend swam the 200 IM for the first time, finishing more than six seconds faster than she did last season, and improved her time in the 100 Backstroke as well. She is now within two seconds of qualifying for the State meet in that event.
Though the newbies didn’t have a prior season to compare against, Scribner did note that most everyone showed improvement from last week’s invite in Cody.
“We had better swims for the most part in Worland,” he began. “In Cody we were dealing with fatigue and some sickness, so with a little bit more rest and everyone feeling better, we had a much better meet overall.”
Kassidee Jeppesen saw huge time drops in both of her individual events. In the 100 Breaststroke the junior carved off 5.74 seconds, and in the 50 Freestyle she cut an astonishing 1.65 seconds off her time from last week.
Liggett also made impressive gains, cutting 3.28 seconds from her 100 Free time, while Emily Beastrom dropped nearly two seconds off her time in the 200 Freestyle, and a second and a half from her 100 Back.
Abbey Lacey and Becca Henkle each improved as well with Lacey taking off a full second from her 50 Free time during her anchor leg of the 200 Free Relay.
“I was really pleased with how the girls performed on Friday, and they are looking really good in practice, so I think we are in a pretty good place right now,” Scribner smiled.
This week the Lady Dogies will host back-to-back events. On Friday beginning at 4 p.m. is a triangular with Cheyenne South and Cody, and on Saturday is the Newcastle Invitational. Diving will begin at 10:30 a.m. with the swimming events to follow Saturday morning and Cheyenne South, Cody, Worland, Buffalo and Douglas will be in attendance. The Lady Dogies have no divers, and swimming events should begin around 11.
Once again, Scribner will challenge his swimmers to attempt new events.
“One of the things I like to do is represent in every event since we are competing in front of our home crowd,” he stated. “And, I still want them to also be in an event they want to improve in and one they haven’t tried.”