<p>What the Franklin College swimming and diving program have accomplished in its first decade of existence is remarkable enough.</p><p>Take into consideration that the the Grizzlies have climbed this far and this quickly up the Division III ladder without an on-campus pool to call their own, and it’s borderline miraculous.</p><p>Andrew Hendricks, who came on board before Franklin’s inaugural season in 2008-09, has quietly built up the top D-III program in the state and one that’s starting to take aim at such national powerhouses as Denison, Emory, Johns Hopkins, Kenyon, MIT and the University of Chicago.</p><p>Such wild-eyed aspirations might have seemed ridiculous even a couple of years ago to outsiders, but Hendricks has thrived on setting bars that many would consider unreachable.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery<p>"If I didn’t have high expectations when I took this this thing over, I don’t think we’d be where we are," he said. "So I think those expectations have to remain, that we have to convince ourselves that we will be at that level. And we continue to strive for that."</p><p>Locally, the Grizzlies have been there for a while. Both the men’s and women’s teams are unbeaten on the season heading into Saturday’s dual meet against rival DePauw. Franklin’s women are 63-3-1 over the past six seasons, while the men are 55-9-1. Both have won five consecutive HCAC championships.</p><p>The school’s current climb onto the national radar screen began with the emergence of 2017 graduate Artur Schneider, who became the first Grizzly to qualify for the NCAA Division III Championships in 2015. He was joined at the meet by classmate Regina Solik as a senior.</p><p>This season, Hendricks hopes to send as many as seven swimmers to the NCAAs. Leading the charge are sophomores Brynna Sentel and Jessica Halsmer, who are ranked in the top 10 nationally in the 500-yard freestyle and 200 backstroke, respectively.</p><p>Sentel says that the current crop of Grizzlies is trying to build on the foundation that Schneider and Solik had laid before them.</p><p>"We definitely look up to them, because we know that it’s possible with the training that we’re doing," she said. "We see that they were able to do it, so we should be able to, too."</p><p>What Sentel and her classmates have done already is helped lay waste to the school record book. Nineteen of the 23 women’s marks were broken last season, most of them by a crop of then-freshmen that included Sentel, Halsmer, Courtnee Coffman, Ashley Snoke and diver Lexi Blackburn.</p><p>Without too many quality opponents to challenge them within Indiana, most of the push for the Franklin men and women to improve has to come from within. Fortunately, self-motivation hasn’t been a problem of late.</p><p>"Each year, we come in with new goals and new things that we want to achieve, and (Hendricks) is a big reason for those goals," junior James Hone said. "We have our own personal goals, but he always wants the program to strive forward and for us to keep achieving new and great things. His motivation kind of motivates us to put in the effort and try our hardest."</p><p>Like Schneider before him, Hone had a long journey to Franklin. A native of Australia, he found the school through a college placement service in his home country and was drawn to the Grizzlies right away.</p><p>"Out of all the coaches I interacted, coach Hendricks went above and beyond any of the other coaches I’d seen," Hone said. "He’d email me back instantly whenever I had a question, and he’d always go into so much more detail and explain things a lot more clearly, which made me feel comfortable about coming to Franklin."</p><p>Most of Hendricks’ men’s and women’s rosters, though, are made up of swimmers from Indiana. And while he does have a few who excelled at the high school level — sophomore Noah Tallman scored at the state meet as a Center Grove senior — the coach says he’s not able to bring in as much ready-made talent as some of the Division III powerhouses that have national academic reputations.</p><p>"We don’t get national-level kids coming in here like some of the programs out east," Hendricks said. "We have to get good kids and make them great. That’s the only way we’re going to compete; we have to make them better."</p><p>The hope is that if the Grizzlies can continue to produce strong swimmers and the school’s academic stature continues to grow, eventually some of those more decorated swim recruits will come on board and Franklin can become a household name across the country, not just in the Midwest.</p><p>Another thing that could help push the program in that direction more quickly would be the construction of an on-campus aquatic facility. Right now, the Grizzlies practice and compete at Franklin Community Middle School.</p><p>"That would be the next big thing that I think would really help this problem move forward," Hone said. "The facility here is great, and it’s good that we can use it, but yeah, we really need a pool on campus."</p><p>Sentel is hopeful that if the teams continue to break new ground in the water each season, the college will eventually feel compelled to build them a permanent home.</p><p>"That’s the hope, for sure," she said. "We hope they just say, ‘Hey, maybe we should give them a pool to practice in. We’ll see how we can really do.’"</p><p>With or without a new facility, these Grizzlies have developed a championship mentality, and their confidence has grown as the program has become arguably the school’s most successful in recent years.</p><p>"I think our kids think that," Hendricks said. "They try to stay humble about it, but with that humility also needs to be some level of confidence, and maybe a touch of ego, I guess, if you want to be a winner. Deep down, they take pride in being one of the better teams."</p><p>"A lot of people kind of forget about the swim team, because we don’t have a pool on campus and we don’t do a lot that they know about," Sentel added. "But we’re really good for such a small school, so I just hope that we continue to get the recognition that we deserve."</p>
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