<strong>I</strong>n 2013, the Franklin boys swimming & diving team edged Center Grove for the sectional title, and the years since have seen the Grizzly Cubs assert themselves as the premier program in the area.
That’s no longer enough to satisfy them.
Beginning with tonight’s preliminaries, Franklin will be out to claim a fifth consecutive sectional crown this weekend — but one eye is already looking ahead another week to the state meet, where it has become a fixture in the top 20 but is hungry to break into the top tier.
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A year ago, almost all of the Grizzly Cubs’ 31 points at the state finals came from Jacob Destrampe, who placed third in the 200-yard freestyle and sixth in the 100 freestyle as a freshman.
Now, Franklin feels it has plenty of other ways to score points.
“We’ve had what we would consider some elite-level talent at the top, but we really haven’t had the depth throughout our lineup,” coach Zach DeWitt said. “This is probably the very first year that we have real expectations of putting a few relays in the top eight and maybe all three in the finals.”
Destrampe figures to again be a big factor — he’s ranked first in the state in the 200 free, one of five individual events in which he’s among the top 20 — but he’s far from alone this time around.
Junior Michael Couet is 13th statewide in the 100 breaststroke and also a potential state qualifier in the 200 individual medley. Sophomore Griffin Edwards has cracked the state’s top 30 in both the IM and the 100 backstroke, and freshman Maxwell Kramer is ranked in three events (50 and 100 free, 100 butterfly).
Sophomore diver Gauge Creech, who qualified for state last year but didn’t reach the finals, is also a threat to pick up points if he can secure a return trip.
“We are a lot deeper this year,” Couet said. “There’s not a whole lot of numbers on our team, but every single one of us is invaluable, because every one of us brings something different to the table. We can fill spots that we’ve had missing before.”
Where the depth has helped most is on the relays. Franklin enters the postseason ranked fifth among Indiana programs in the 400 freestyle relay and seventh in the 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays.
Qualifying all three for state finals could mean a wealth of points — even just placing two relays in the top eight would assure the Grizzly Cubs of a jump up from the 31 points they scored at last year’s state meet, and getting all three there would all but lock up the first top-10 state finish of DeWitt’s tenure.
Knowing what’s within reach, the team has ramped up the intensity this season.
“We’ve taken this year a lot more seriously than we have the last few years,” Destrampe said.
Of course, the rest of the swimmers in the sectional aren’t about to just hand the Grizzly Cubs a full complement of state qualifying spots. Center Grove’s Noah Tallman is a returning state qualifier in the 500 freestyle and is ranked 16th in that event as well as the 100 butterfly this year, and Indian Creek has individual state hopefuls in Tucker Brock (butterfly) and Nolan Reed (backstroke) as well as a strong 400 freestyle relay team.
But DeWitt seems unfazed. He feels he has a team capable of cracking the state’s upper echelon this year — and with a squad full of young talent and a strong group of eighth-graders on the way, he sees no reason to think that Franklin’s rise won’t continue.
“Between what we have now and what’s coming in,” he said, “not to mention the culture and what we expect around here, we think we’re going to be players for a few years.”
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<strong>Franklin Sectional</strong>
When: 5:30 p.m. (preliminaries); Saturday, 9 a.m. (diving prelims) and 1 p.m. (all event finals)
Tickets: $6 per session, $10 both sessions
Teams competing: Center Grove, Franklin, Greenwood, Indian Creek, Whiteland, Martinsville, Mooresville, Owen Valley, Perry Meridian, Roncalli, Southport
Advancement: Winner in each event advances to state finals, along with any other competitors who match automatic state qualifying times
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