The times, they are improving

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
Hard work is paying dividends for the Lady Dogie swim team, as once again they are showing impressive time drops. Though Hannah Gross remains the only member of the team to have guaranteed a spot in the State Meet, at the Buffalo Invite last Saturday several made moves in that direction.
“It was a pretty good meet for us, and things are just really starting to come together,” head coach Doug Scribner nodded. “We’ve been working on and improving our technique, which is making a big difference in our times.”
Madi Townsend, who is within reach of qualifying in the 200 Free, the 100 Free and the 100 Backstroke, dropped three seconds in the 200. That puts her right at two seconds away from hitting the 3A qualifying mark, and she also shaved three from the 100 Breast stroke.
“Madi has been starting races strong the whole season, but she would fade and technique would fall off toward the end,” Scribner began. “It was great to see that on Saturday, she swam the whole race really strong and when she got out of the water she commented that she should have taken it out faster.”
Scribner is confident Townsend will have no trouble taking off the additional two seconds in the 200 Free given she has eight laps in which to do it. Paige Liggett benefitted greatly from improved technique where a properly executed flip turn enabled her to drop almost four seconds in the 50 Free, which is huge in a race of such a short duration. In addition Liggett achieved a personal goal, as she dropped below the 40 second mark in that race for the first time. Technique has also shown its benefits as she dropped 6.62 seconds in the breaststroke. 
Emily Beastrom dropped about 10 seconds in the 500, which Scribner stated is typical to see when a swimmer attempts the event for the second time.
“It’s not unusual to see good time drops because you don’t have the jitters you had the first time, and you know that you are able to actually do it,” he chuckled. “That allows you to concentrate more on the how you’re racing, and not just whether or not you’re going to finish.”
Even Gross, who has been putting up times that are among the fastest in the state, saw improvement. In both the 200 and 400 Free relays, Scribner changed her leg in order to maximize her motivation in each event.
“When I have her lead off, she’ll have a pretty good time. If I anchor her, because we don’t have three other people who are super strong in the 100, we will be way behind by the time it’s her turn to go so she doesn’t necessarily push herself. She’ll have a good time, but it’s not really what she can do,” he began. “So I put her in the second leg in the 200 and the third leg of the 400, and told her that if we were a little behind she needed to catch up and if we had a lead she needed to increase it.”
The strategy appears to have worked, given Gross swam a ridiculously fast 50 yard split of 24.37 in the 200 Free, and she opened up an enormous lead in the 400. 
This weekend, the team will be in Laramie for what amounts to a pre-state invitational. On Friday they will compete in the pre-invite and then Saturday is the big invitational. These will be the two biggest meets the Lady Dogies have competed in so far this season. Since state is being held in Laramie, it will also offer the team the opportunity to experience the pool and get a preview of what it’s like.