Destrampe, Grizzly Cubs shine at state prelims

<p>INDIANAPOLIS</p><p>Jacob Destrampe became Franklin’s first-ever individual swimming champion last year. He’s poised to add on to his legacy this afternoon.</p><p>The senior comes out of Friday night’s state preliminaries as the top overall seed in the 50-yard freestyle and third in the 100 freestyle, just .13 seconds back of the top spot. Destrampe also helped the Grizzly Cubs finish the night with the fastest times in both the 200 and 400 freestyle relays.</p><p>“I feel like I definitely did what I wanted to do tonight,” Destrampe said. “After three years of coming here, prelims is definitely something that I’ve gotten used to, so I feel like tomorrow I can definitely bring a lot more than I usually do in the past.”</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery<p>Franklin got its night started out on the right foot, as the quartet of Cade Oliver, Barrett Daily, Griffin Edwards and Max Kramer posted a fifth-place finish in the 200 medley relay. The Grizzly Cubs then advanced a pair of swimmers in the 200 individual medley, with Oliver (seventh) reaching the championship final and Edwards (16th) making the consolation heat.</p><p>Destrampe then followed by swimming the 50 free in 20.49 seconds, the fastest time of the night. He later won his 100 free heat with ease in a time of 44.97 seconds, trailing only Ethan Churilla of Highland (44.84) and Alec DeLong of Carmel (44.96).</p><p>The Grizzly Cubs will also enter this afternoon with the top seed in both freestyle relays. Destrampe teamed with Shane O’Sullivan, Edwards and Kramer to go 1:24.09 in the 200 free relay, and he joined with O’Sullivan, Kramer and Oliver in the 400 free relay to put up a time of 3:04.51.</p><p>“Not everyone’s played all of their cards,” Franklin coach Zach DeWitt said of the relay situation going into the finals. “There’s a couple of swims in there that we think we can do better, we can clean up, and I just trust that my boys haven’t spent all of the ammunition quite yet.”</p><p>Senior Shane O’Sullivan earned a spot in the consolation final in the 100 butterfly by placing ninth with a school-record time of 50.15 seconds, and Oliver was 11th in the 100 backstroke (50.72).</p><p>Center Grove’s medley relay team (Benjamin Clarkston, Vincent Valde, Tony Gipson and Ethan Martin) finished 12th, earning a spot in the consolation finals. Gipson also advanced as an individual, placing 14th in the 100 butterfly.</p><p>Martin was 23rd in the 50 freestyle, and the Trojans’ 200 and 400 freestyle relay teams didn’t make it out of the prelims, finishing 21st and 22nd, respectively.</p><p>The effort was an improvement from last year, when Center Grove didn’t put a single swimmer into the state meet.</p><p>“This is a big stage, and kids are relatively new to this stage,” coach Jim Todd said. “I’m happy with the way they performed today. Hopefully this will be a good lesson for them and they can come back. Tony did an awesome job in that 100 fly. We’ll come back tomorrow, and we’ll try to get a little bit better, and more importantly learn from it.”</p><p>Whiteland’s Brenden Gough, who has been struggling all week with an illness, still managed to move on in the 200 freestyle with a 15th-place showing. He came up just short of advancing in the 100 butterfly, finishing 17th.</p><p>Indian Creek, which had also qualified all three of its relay teams, was not able to move any on to the finals. The Braves were 24th in the medley and 200 freestyle relays and 25th in the 400 free relay.</p><p>For Franklin, which is trying to at least match last year’s second-place finish as a team, there’s plenty left to do today — and Destrampe is ready to leave a big mark in his final high school meet.</p><p>“It’s my last one,” he said. “I definitely want to leave an imprint on Franklin as being a team that has people that can get first in multiple events, and it’s definitely something I’m looking forward to.”</p>