Lady Dogies Celebrate Wins, Qualifying Times and Personal Records Across Two-Meet Swing
| Place | Participant | Place | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 538 | |
| 2 | 2 | 329 | |
| 3 | 3 | 290 | |
| 4 |  | 4 | 178 |
| Place | Participant | Place | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 417 | |
| 2 | 2 | 271 | |
| 3 | 3 | 162 | |
| 4 | 4 | 135 | |
| 5 | 5 | 134 | |
| 6 | | 6 | 79 |
Newcastle’s small but determined girls swimming and diving team scored 178 points to finish fourth in a four-team meet Sept. 11 in Worland, then added 79 points and placed sixth at the Sept. 12 Gene Dozah Invitational in Powell. The Lady Dogies’ hard work showed throughout the two-meet swing, which featured two individual victories, four 4A-qualifying performances and several significant personal records.
Allie Lunstra led Newcastle in Worland by winning the 500-yard freestyle in a 4A-qualifying 6 minutes, 16.26 seconds, finishing 48.85 seconds ahead of the runner-up adding that event to her state slate. Lunstra also placed second in the 200 freestyle with another 4A time of 2:16.05,. Shelby Smith supplied another top-three finish, taking third in the 200 individual medley in 2:50.21. Her work on the breaststroke leg paid off with a 14-second improvement over her previous best.
The Lady Dogies found scoring depth throughout Friday’s meet. Chevy Bryan placed fifth in the 500 freestyle at 8:04.17 and fifth in the 100 breaststroke at 1:47.51, while Lillian Lopez took seventh in the 500 freestyle in 8:22.42. Natalie Dean delivered one of the weekend’s biggest personal breakthroughs, cutting an astounding 1:06 from her previous 200 freestyle best to finish in 3:18.67. Newcastle’s 200 freestyle relay placed fifth in 2:13.80, and the 400 freestyle relay also took fifth in 5:09.26. Buffalo won the meet with 538 points, followed by Cody with 329 and Worland with 290.
Despite suffering from fatigue on Saturday in Powell, Newcastle continued producing strong swims. Smith led off the 200 medley relay and returned immediately for the 200 freestyle, placing eighth in 2:38.21, only about three seconds off her personal best. She later finished the 100 breaststroke in 1:35.12, just two seconds shy of her PR. Smith, Dean, Lunstra and Bryan completed the medley relay in 2:35.08 to place ninth.
Lunstra added two more 4A standards at the Gene Dozah Invitational. She placed fourth in the 50 freestyle in 27.91 seconds against a strong field that included Buffalo and Riverton swimmers, then won the 100 butterfly in 1:13.85 with a two-second advantage over the runner-up. Lopez placed ninth in the butterfly at 1:43.19, and Bryan followed in 10th at 1:46.41. Bryan, Lopez, Smith and Lunstra combined for eighth in the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 2:11.68.
Bryan also provided an encouraging glimpse of what could be ahead. The sophomore anchored the 200 medley relay with an unofficial 50 freestyle split of 28.66 seconds, a time that meets the 3A standard even though only a relay leadoff split can officially qualify. Bryan also improved her open 50 freestyle personal record by four seconds and won her heat. Riverton captured the six-team invitational with 417 points, but Newcastle left Powell with another victory, two more qualifying swims and tangible evidence that the Lady Dogies’ daily work is translating into faster times.
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