State swimming notebook: ‘Spirit animal’ boosts Franklin

<p>INDIANAPOLIS</p><p>When his Franklin teammates were swimming thousands upon thousands of yards during practices this season, senior diver Gauge Creech was off on his own little island, honing his craft.</p><p>On Saturday, the Grizzly Cubs were glad that he did.</p><p>In a meet where none of the other teams in the top five had a diver competing, Creech was the ace up Franklin’s sleeve — and the 13 points he produced with his sixth-place finish played a big part in the Grizzly Cubs securing their second straight team runner-up trophy.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]<p>Though he doesn’t work with Creech on a day-to-day basis, Franklin coach Zach DeWitt says the diver is very much one of the guys.</p><p>&quot;Gauge is one of the most gregarious, fun-loving people that I’ve ever been around,&quot; DeWitt said. &quot;He brightens every single room that he walks into, and so in a lot of ways, he’s been, I guess you’d say, a lot more attached to the swim team than your standard diver.</p><p>&quot;In some ways, he’s kind of our little spirit animal.&quot;</p><p>Creech scored big on his penultimate dive, collecting 57.60 points on a forward 2 1/2 somersault tuck to move into fourth place heading into the 11th and final round.</p><p>His final dive got away from him a little, knocking him back two spots, but Creech still finished with a total of 451.60 on a fairly tight scoring day.</p><p>When Saturday’s meet ended, Franklin’s &quot;spirit animal&quot; was decked out in a Beavis and Butt-head hoodie, celebrating with the rest of the Grizzly Cubs — and he didn’t have a single regret.</p><p>&quot;I feel like I did all of my dives to the best of my ability,&quot; he said. &quot;The twister, I had a great setup and it kind of just got lost in the twist, but still completed. I’m very happy with how I placed. I wanted to move up from last year, and I did this year. Shoulda, coulda, woulda that last dive, but I’m still very happy with sixth place. I’m very proud of that.&quot;</p><p>Creech is still weighing his options as far as diving at the collegiate level. He’s currently considering Ball State, Franklin College and IUPUI.</p><p><span>Back on the big stage</span></p><p>After not qualifying any swimmers for last year’s state meet, Center Grove made its return this weekend, qualifying in all three relays as well as two individual events.</p><p>The Trojans’ 200-yard medley relay team of Benjamin Clarkston, Vincent Valde, Tony Gipson and Ethan Martin reached Saturday’s consolation final and placed 12th with a time of 1:35.46, nearly half a second faster than in Friday’s preliminaries. Gipson added a 15th-place finish in the 100 butterfly for Center Grove, which finished in 35th place overall with 12 points.</p><p>While not everything went exactly as the Trojans might have hoped, the experience should serve as an important stepping stone for a team that will return everyone from this year’s postseason lineup.</p><p>&quot;I think making it to state after not making it last year, it’s a great feeling,&quot; Gipson said, &quot;and I hope that the other guys — getting a taste this year, I hope it really motivates them to come back and make it better than ever next year.&quot;</p><p><span>Taking full advantage</span></p><p>A famous American poet once said, &quot;You only get one shot/do not miss your chance to blow.&quot; </p><p>Franklin senior Shane O’Sullivan did not miss his.</p><p>After sitting and watching the last three state meets as an alternate, O’Sullivan finally got to make a contribution as a senior — and it was a big one.</p><p>O’Sullivan won the consolation final in the 100 butterfly, hitting the wall in 49.48 seconds to earn ninth place and break the school record for the third time in three postseason swims.</p><p>He also swam on the Grizzly Cubs’ 200 and 400 freestyle relays, both of which finished in second place.</p><p>&quot;I just really wanted to be out there with my brothers swimming,&quot; O’Sullivan said, &quot;so to finally be able to do that, I couldn’t ask for anything more.&quot;</p><p>O’Sullivan knocked four seconds off of his butterfly time, continuing the recent trend of Franklin swimmers having breakthrough senior seasons after both Michael Couet and Brock Lock did the same a year ago.</p><p>&quot;It is starting to become a trend where maybe we get one senior to come up and step up and contribute,&quot; DeWitt said, &quot;so I’m looking at my juniors for next year — not that I’m already moving on to the next one.&quot;</p><p><span>Paving the way</span></p><p>Despite being a bit under the weather for much of the week, Whiteland senior Brenden Gough was able to earn a second swim in the 200 freestyle, finishing 14th with a time of 1:43.17 to score three points for the Warriors.</p><p>Gough, who owns the majority of Whiteland’s school records and plans to walk on at Purdue next year, said he’d like for his showing to set the tone for the returning Warriors and push them to keep growing as a team.</p><p>&quot;Hopefully me coming this year, it’ll carry on and we’ll have more people from Whiteland go to state next year,&quot; Gough said. &quot;I hope that they continue to get better and better next year.&quot;</p><p>Whiteland’s other state representative on Saturday, diver Collin Barton, was eliminated in the morning preliminaries. He finished 31st.</p>