Franklin swimmer setting a high bar

<p>The past five or six years have been a seemingly never-ending series of firsts for the Franklin girls swimming program, both at the high school and club levels.</p><p>In nearly every case, it has been Carla Gildersleeve’s job to break new ground.</p><p>Gildersleeve was the first female Franklin Regional Swim Team (FRST) swimmer to qualify for a junior national event when she made the cut in several events for the Speedo Winter Junior Championships as a 14-year-old in December of 2014. Though she recalls being extremely nervous for that meet, Gildersleeve said that she’s become more comfortable over time with having to go into uncharted waters.</p><p>“It’s a really big challenge, but you start to put the puzzle pieces where they need to go,” she said. “You’ve got to figure a lot of stuff out.”</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]<p>She’s figuring it out quite well.</p><p>In 2016, Gildersleeve became the first swimmer, male or female, from Franklin to score points at a junior national meet, placing 13th in the 200-yard butterfly at the Speedo winter championships.</p><p>She has since followed up by scoring at two other national meets, still the lone Franklin Regional Swim Team point scorer of either gender at that level.</p><p>Franklin coach Zach DeWitt said that Gildersleeve’s ability to break through nationally has helped raise the confidence level of everybody in the program.</p><p>“That’s an entirely different beast; it’s so easy to get lost in the shuffle,” DeWitt said of national meets. “(Scoring points there) is a really big accomplishment, and I think that actually helps the boys believe that they can do the same thing.”</p><p>Gildersleeve also has been the standard-bearer at the high school level for the Franklin girls. The junior owns four individual school records and shares two relay marks, and she placed in the top seven in each of her individual events at the state meet as a freshman and a sophomore, including a third-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly last year.</p><p>She was also a part of the Grizzly Cubs’ 400 freestyle relay team at the 2017 state meet, the first girls quartet to earn a podium finish in the championship final.</p><p>Franklin narrowly missed its first top-10 team finish overall, a goal it appears well positioned to reach next month.</p><p>The Grizzly Cubs’ growth has been largely attributable to Gildersleeve, who DeWitt says “redefines what fast means at Franklin.” Each time she has broken through, it has given her teammates more and more reason to believe that they’re capable of similar achievements.</p><p>“Her mentality has definitely spread,” DeWitt said, “and I think that’s a lot of the reason why, three years ago we couldn’t win a sectional title or even get close, and then now obviously we can maybe compete on a state level.”</p><p>Having already done plenty to raise Franklin’s profile, Gildersleeve has her sights set on even bigger goals. In an effort to reach them, she’s taking more steps to improve herself both in and out of the water.</p><p>She’s sleeping more, meaning that she’s had to control her tendency to binge-watch Netflix, and she’s also doing a better job of watching what she eats.</p><p>“One of the bigger things I’ve looked at is my diet, because I have a big sweet tooth,” Gildersleeve said. “I watched this documentary called ‘Fed Up,’ and it talks about how bad sugar is for you, so that changed my diet completely and now I really focus on what I’m eating.”</p><p>Like any teenager, Gildersleeve remains human — during some of the lulls in her swimming calendar, she allows herself to slack off a little.</p><p>“Spring break, I eat oatmeal creme pies for dinner,” she admitted with a smile. “It gets bad.”</p><p>It’s fair to say at this point, though, that Gildersleeve has earned the right to ease up every once in a while.</p><p>Setting the bar for an entire program isn’t easy — but Gildersleeve’s trailblazing has already started to pay dividends.</p><p>“Not only can these kids believe, but more importantly, our next generation, our middle schoolers, can just grow up thinking that’s a natural progression,” DeWitt said.</p><p>“She’s definitely shifted the realm of possibilities around here.”</p>[sc:pullout-title pullout-title="FRST time for everything" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p>Carla Gildersleeve is the lone member of the Franklin Regional Swim Team to ever score points at a national meet, having done so three times. A look at her top performances:</p><p><strong>Meet;Event;Finish</strong></p><p>2016 Winter Jr. Championships East;200 butterfly;13th</p><p>2017 Junior Nationals;200 IM;15th</p><p>2017 Winter Jr. Championships East;200 butterfly;12th</p>[sc:pullout-text-end]