For as long as Zach DeWitt has been a swim coach, there has been one constant — Carla Gildersleeve.
This weekend’s state meet at IU Natatorium marks the end of a remarkable 11-year run together for the two, and Gildersleeve hopes to cap it in the best way possible.
Gildersleeve is regarded as one of the favorites to win the 100-yard butterfly final on Saturday. Should she succeed, she’d become the first girls swimming champion in Franklin history and the first Johnson County victor since Center Grove’s Emma Schoettmer took the 100 breaststroke in 2012.
Four Franklin divers have won a combined six state championships — Dee Boice (1980-81), Dana Weigand (1982-83), Kelly Gallagher (1986) and Katie Cooper (1998) — but no Grizzly Cub girls swimmer has ever claimed an individual title.
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Gildersleeve is, in typical Franklin fashion, focused more on the process than the end result, but the idea of taking home the top prize is clearly on her mind.
"We can call it the elephant in the room," DeWitt said. "It’s not something we talk about explicitly, but I’m 100 percent sure that’s the goal on some level, especially for her."
"The goal is always to be better than you were last year," said Gildersleeve, who was second in the butterfly last winter. "So whatever that may mean."
Gildersleeve will also be swimming the 200 individual medley this year for the first time after competing in the 200 freestyle each of her first three seasons. She finished fourth in that event last year.
"We knew that my 200 IM got good last summer; we really worked on it," said Gildersleeve, who is seeded eighth in that event going into tonight’s prelims. "So I think having the opportunity to work on it again for a whole short course season and see what I could do was nice — and it was nice to do something different than freestyle every day."
Gildersleeve faces an uphill climb to reach the throne, however.
In both the butterfly and the IM, she’ll be up against one of the nation’s top swimmers in Carmel senior Kelly Pash, who won the 100 freestyle the last two years and added the 200 freestyle title last winter. The 200 IM also pits Gildersleeve against Yorktown’s Emily Weiss, who will team with her at Indiana University next season. Weiss holds the national high school record in the breaststroke and was second in the IM last year.
"During the year, we don’t get to see them at all," Gildersleeve said, "so it’s really exciting that this is what it comes down to."
The weekend will be a bittersweet one overall for Gildersleeve, who says she "cried literally the whole day" on Franklin’s senior night, and for DeWitt, who remembers driving her home from practice every day when she was 7 years old and he was her wet-behind-the-ears club coach.
"She and I have kind of grown together," DeWitt said. "I’ve grown up as a coach in those 11 years, and she’s grown up as a swimmer in those 11 years. She’s shown me what it takes to succeed at the highest level.
"Many athletes come and go, but I don’t know if I’ll ever coach someone from the first day to the last day again."
Now that the last two days are here, Gildersleeve is eager to see how everything will shake out. The Grizzly Cubs were fourth in the team standings last year, easily their best finish ever, and they’ve been ranked second behind 32-time defending champion Carmel for most of this season.
"I think we know what we can do," Gildersleeve said. "It’s just about if we can put all of the pieces together and if the stars align and everything. It’ll be really fun, really interesting to see what happens."
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IHSAA State Finals
At IU Natatorium, Indianapolis
Today
Swimming preliminaries, 6 p.m.
Saturday
Diving preliminaries, 9 a.m.
Swimming and diving finals, 1 p.m.
Admission: $8 per day or $15 for both days
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A look at each event and how Johnson County’s representatives stack up against the competition (all swim times are from last weekend’s sectionals; diving scores are from Tuesday’s regionals):
200 medley relay
Local qualifiers: Franklin (seeded 10th, 1:46.34); Greenwood (24th, 1:50.16)
Outlook: The Grizzly Cubs, running back almost the same lineup that finished second in this event last year, figure to be in the mix here again once they sub in sophomore Gracey Payne, who sat out the relays during the sectional meet. Carmel will always be the favorite, especially with top swimmer Kelly Pash in the lineup, but Franklin should at least have a puncher’s chance. Can surprise qualifier Greenwood work its way up into the top 16 with its young squad? Even if it can’t, the experience should pay dividends in the future.
200 freestyle
Local qualifier: Sarah Hoffman, Franklin (10th, 1:52.82)
Outlook: Hoffman, who placed 16th in this event as a sophomore, will be the lone Franklin torchbearer in this event with Carla Gildersleeve switching over to the 200 individual medley. While winning is unlikely with three Carmel swimmers at the top of the psych sheet, a top-eight finish is certainly realistic for the Franklin junior here.
200 individual medley
Local qualifier: Carla Gildersleeve, Franklin (seventh, 2:04.90)
Outlook: The spotlight this weekend should be on this event, which features the state’s top three senior swimmers: Pash, Gildersleeve and Yorktown’s Emily Weiss, who obliterated the state breaststroke record last year. Gildersleeve has put a greater focus on the IM this season and hopes to put a scare into Pash, who would be considered the favorite in almost any individual event she entered. If the three stars all end up side by side in Saturday’s final, it could be the meet’s most electrifying moment.
50 freestyle
Local qualifiers: Gracey Payne, Franklin (13th, 23.87); Scarlet Friend, Franklin (20th, 24.20)
Outlook: No race leaves less room for error than the 50 free. Not surprisingly, the top five seeds are separated by .03 seconds and the top 24 swimmers are within less than a second of one another. Franklin could easily score two swimmers here, though — Friend was 17th last winter and Payne was a top-nine seed before missing the wall during the prelims. She’ll be out for redemption, and a podium finish is certainly in play.
Diving
Local qualifiers: Faith Jackson, Greenwood (10th, 408.25); Kenzie Mills, Center Grove (11th, 407.60)
Outlook: Jackson was a state qualifier last year and missed getting out of the preliminaries by .05 points. That has served as motivation for the senior this season, and she’s hoping to break through a tightly-bunched field, get onto the main stage and give herself a shot at a medal. Both Jackson and frequent club training partner Mills — who has been on point since nailing her final sectional dive to advance out of that round — have the ability to get onto the podium if all goes according to plan beginning Saturday morning.
100 butterfly
Local qualifiers: Gildersleeve, Franklin (eighth, 55.42); Grace Nuhfer, Greenwood (21st, 57.54)
Outlook: Though there may be some other interlopers, including top seed Teagen Moon of Fort Wayne Carroll (54.24), this race should and probably will come down to Gildersleeve and Pash, both of whom have absolutely saved another gear for this weekend. Pash is probably the favorite, but if Gildersleeve — easily the best girls swimmer in Franklin history — is going to win a state title before she graduates, it’s most likely going to happen here.
100 freestyle
Local qualifier: Payne, Franklin (19th, 52.67)
Outlook: As is the case with many of her teammates, don’t be fooled by Payne’s lower seed. The sophomore has been preparing with only one meet in mind, and she’s likely to be in podium contention here after finishing seventh as a freshman. Elsa Fretz of Northridge, the runner-up to Pash in this event last year, is the favorite, but Payne should be able to score some points again.
500 freestyle
Local qualifier: Hoffman, Franklin (21st, 5:08.25)
Outlook: After finishing 15th last year in this event, Hoffman did not taper or wear a tech suit at the sectional meet, so expect a solid drop from last week’s time. Whether she can drop enough to crack the top eight remains to be seen, but she should be able to do enough to move into the top 16 and score points on Saturday.
200 freestyle relay
Local qualifier: Franklin (15th, 1:38.72)
Outlook: That the Grizzly Cubs were able to post a state cut time without Gildersleeve or Payne speaks volumes about how much depth they’ve added in the past couple of years. If both are added to the lineup, then Franklin might be able to improve on its fourth-place finish from a year ago and challenge the likes of Northridge and Carmel for the win.
100 backstroke
Local qualifiers: Scarlet Friend, Franklin (15th, 56.66); Lexi Wilhoit, Indian Creek (19th, 57.33)
Outlook: This will be one of the more interesting races of the weekend, at least from a local standpoint. Friend, who finished ninth last year, swam a lifetime best at the sectional while edging Wilhoit, who was visibly upset with her performance. Both are Division I swimmers capable of posting top-eight finishes this weekend; it’s just going to be a matter of who brings their best swims tonight and Saturday. Wilhoit is a four-time qualifier in this event who wants to go out strong.
100 breaststroke
Local qualifier: Kabria Chapman, Franklin (27th, 1:06.32)
Outlook: Chapman, a seventh-place finisher as a freshman, is certainly capable of earning another medal — she didn’t taper or wear a tech suit last week — but it’s going to be more difficult coming out of the slowest preliminary heat. Can Chapman rise to the occasion and log a fast enough time without any real push from the swimmers next to her?
400 freestyle relay
Local qualifiers: Franklin (18th, 3;36.97); Greenwood (22nd, 3:39.28); Center Grove (23rd, 3:39.37)
Outlook: This is probably the weakest of the three Grizzly Cub relays, but the addition of Gildersleeve should at least put it in play for a top-eight finish. For Greenwood and Center Grove, making it into the top 16 on Saturday would be considered a major victory — especially for the Woodmen, who will have all of their state competitors back next season.
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