Senior night splash

Francis qualifies in diving as Newcastle swimmers post personal bests

Madalyn Francis made her senior night count Thursday, Oct. 8, earning a state qualifying diving score in the Lady Dogies’ only home meet of the season at the Kozisek Aquatic Center.

Newcastle’s lone senior scored 158.55 points to finish second in diving during a 95-52 dual meet loss to Douglas. Her performance highlighted an evening that included three individual wins and several personal bests for the Lady Dogies.

Francis had competed on the diving board just once previously this season, at the team’s opener in Laramie in August, before illness sidelined her for weeks.

“To have her come out and nail her dive set like that on Thursday was really great,” coach Sonja Karp said.

Macy Steber and Shelby Smith also moved closer to adding events to their state meet schedules.

Steber won the 50-yard freestyle in a season-best 29.56 seconds, finishing within a second of the Class 3A state qualifying mark. She also placed third in the 100-yard freestyle in 1:06.06, her best yards time of the season.

Smith won the 200-yard individual medley in 2:48.38, improving her personal best by nearly two seconds and coming within 1.24 seconds of the state qualifying standard. She added a second-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke.

“Macy and Shelby both had outstanding performances on Thursday,” Karp said. “That makes me really excited for them to add the 200 IM and the 50 Free to their state slate in the next couple of weeks.”

Allie Lunstra earned Newcastle’s third individual win, finishing the 100-yard butterfly in 1:12.90, nearly five seconds ahead of the runner-up. She also placed second in the 200-yard freestyle in 2:13.29. Both times were under the state qualifying standards, Karp said.

Lilly Lopez lowered her personal best in the 100-yard freestyle by four seconds, finishing in 1:14.79. She also improved her best 100-yard backstroke time by five seconds, clocking 1:22.98.

Natalie Dean cut seven seconds from her previous best in the 100-yard breaststroke, finishing in 1:46.83.

Newcastle’s 200-yard medley and 400-yard freestyle relays both placed second.

The Lady Dogies followed their home meet with the Buffalo Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 10, finishing fourth among five teams with 125 points. Buffalo won with 444 points, followed by Worland with 197 and Cody with 176. Powell finished fifth with 117.

Although the swimmers were tired, Karp said they still posted good times and several improvements.

Lunstra led Newcastle with second-place finishes in the 200-yard individual medley and 100-yard backstroke. Her times of 2:43.14 and 1:11.69, respectively, met the state qualifying standards.

Smith placed fourth in the 500-yard freestyle in 6:55.89, improving her personal best by eight seconds. She then returned to the pool with only a few minutes of rest to anchor the 200-yard freestyle relay.

Her 50-yard relay split of 28.39 seconds was faster than the Class 3A qualifying standard for the individual event. Karp explained that the split could not qualify Smith for state because only a relay’s leadoff leg can count toward qualification in an individual event.

The performance nevertheless showed Smith’s potential to add the 50-yard freestyle to her state schedule, Karp said.

Francis followed her senior night performance with another state qualifying diving score, earning 153.50 points for fifth place at Buffalo.

Dean placed ninth in the 100-yard freestyle in 1:18.94, lowering her personal best by three seconds. She also swam the 100-yard backstroke nine seconds faster than her previous best, but a disqualification on the final turn prevented that swim from counting as an official personal record.

Steber placed sixth in both the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke, while Smith added a sixth-place finish in the individual medley. Newcastle’s medley relay finished fourth, and its 200-yard freestyle relay placed sixth.

The Dogies have a week off from competition. Next up is a conference meet Oct. 23-24 in Douglas, Oct. 30 is the last chance qualifier in Gillette, and State is Nov. 5 and 6 (which is a change from the schedule) in Gillette.