There are many terms one could use to describe Devin Scott. Laid-back isn't one of them.
The Minot High School junior swimmer's smiley demeanor and quick, sarcastic wit lends itself to another adjective.
"She's pretty crazy," sophomore McKenna Brown said. "It's a different type of crazy that you can't explain. She gets pretty 'Rahhhhh! Let's do this!' and just crazy."
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Adam Lawson/MDN
Minot High School sophomore swimmer Sydney Clark gasps for air during the 200-yard individual medley of the Majette Invitational Saturday at Magic City Campus. Clark finished fifth in the event and was on the 200 freestyle-relay team that finished second. Minot won the meet.
On Saturday, Scott helped fuel a massive comeback as the second swimmer in the 400-yard freestyle relay of the Majette Invitational at Magic City Campus. Scott dove into the water with her team (freshman Cassandra Askvig, freshman Emily Hamel and Brown) down by more than a second.
By the time she finished her 100 yards, the Majettes' foursome had seized the lead. Hamel and Brown swam the last two legs for Minot, which finished with a time of 3 minutes, 48.78 seconds, nearly two seconds ahead of second-place Bismarck Century.
"I never decide what's going to happen until it's over," Scott said. "But when you're behind, you just gotta take the initiative and not focus on the pain that you feel when you're swimming. You just have to go after it."
MHS took first in four of the 13 events and finished second in four others. The Majettes' 558 points was easily tops among the six schools competing and was 58 points better than second-place finisher and three-time defending state champion Century.
"I think we made a statement today," MHS coach Dan Hinton said. "Even with Century swimming out of their events, I think that they know that we're real competition and no doubt when we dual them in a few weeks, they're going to take us serious."
In addition to helping MHS win the 400-freestyle relay, Scott swam on the 200-freestyle relay team that placed second and finished third in the 100 butterfly.
Scott finished second in the 50 freestyle by collecting her second sub-27-second time in consecutive days. She won the event on Friday against Mandan.
"Swimming is a very personal sport," Scott said. "You mainly try to improve your times meet-by-meet. You're definitely competing against everyone else but you're also competing with yourself, too."
Brown won the 500 freestyle (almost fourteen seconds faster than her closest competitor), finished second in the 200 freestyle and second in the 200-freestyle relay. Brown also won the 500 freestyle against Mandan on Friday.
"I was thinking (my competitors) would be pretty close to me, but (winning by a lot is) always a pretty good sign for me," Brown said.
Askvig won the 100 freestyle and MHS junior Sarah Bogenrief won the 100 breaststroke.
Hinton said that the amount of good times and top finishes is a positive sign for his team going forward.
"At the last two meets, we're starting to find that we have more depth than I thought," Hinton said. "I've been moving people around the last couple meets trying to find the right formulas as far as putting our best effort together in a meet."
Minot hosts Jamestown on Tuesday at 5 p.m.