<p>Center Grove swimming and diving coach Jim Todd can play coy all he wants about the importance he and his boys team are placing on Saturday’s Johnson County showdown with nemesis Franklin.</p>
<p>If the Trojans do manage to end the Grizzly Cubs’ four-year reign, they’re not likely to react in a subdued fashion on the podium.</p>
<p>Franklin coach Zach DeWitt, meanwhile, has spent the past few weeks doing his best Lou Holtz impression, insisting that his squad will need to catch every break imaginable to even have a chance against Center Grove.</p>
<p>"I’m dead serious," DeWitt said. "To me, they’re … probably a top-seven team in the state, and if you don’t believe me, go look up some times around the state. They really are that good."</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]
<p>Sure, there are nuggets of truth buried inside what both Todd and DeWitt have been peddling.</p>
<p>But for all of Todd’s downplaying, it would absolutely be a big deal for his swimmers to win on Saturday; surely they’re all aware that none of them have beaten Franklin before.</p>
<p>And as right as DeWitt might be to be worried about the Trojans, who return everybody of consequence from last year’s team, his Grizzly Cubs — state runners-up each of the past two seasons — don’t get to claim the underdog card until someone beats them.</p>
<p>Gamesmanship aside, Saturday’s meet at Indian Creek represents Center Grove’s best chance at winning a county championship since 2014, when the Trojans edged the Grizzly Cubs by a slim 478-472 margin.</p>
<p>Franklin’s boys have won by a fairly comfortable amount each of the last four years, but Center Grove was just six points behind last December before a disqualification in the 200-yard freestyle relay killed their chances. The Grizzly Cubs wound up winning, 503 to 444.</p>
<p>The Trojans should be pretty excited heading into a meet that figures to go down to the wire, right? If Todd is to be believed, Franklin has barely come up at practice.</p>
<p>"We’ve just been focusing on trying to get faster," he said. "County is just a good time of year to see where we’re at … at this time of the year. With Christmas break and all that, it’s important to have a feel of what we need to really work on."</p>
<p>Times are usually not great at this meet because of where it falls — not only is it just after midyear exams, but the swimmers are in the throes of high-volume December training. Heck, most, if not all, county teams will even get an early-morning practice in before Saturday’s meet.</p>
<p>Still, DeWitt agrees that it’s a useful barometer — and with the meet expected to be competitive, he doesn’t necessarily think all of the times will be that slow.</p>
<p>"It’s a challenging thing to swim fast at this meet," he said, "but I still think fast swimming is to be had."</p>
<p>It just remains to be seen whether Center Grove or Franklin will end up having more of it.</p>
<p>On the girls side, Franklin figures to again be the class of the county — the Grizzly Cubs have won by more than 100 points each of the last four years, and it’s unlikely that they’ll be seriously challenged this weekend. The race for second place, however, could be quite interesting.</p>
<p>Center Grove has been the runner-up every year since its last championship in 2014, but the rest of the county appears to be catching up, and Todd knows his team could start feeling some heat, especially if the other schools can come close to matching the Trojans’ depth.</p>
<p>"I know that Greenwood has some really good, fast girls, and we swam Whiteland already and they’ve got some really good girls," Todd said. "With county, the spots just fill in, so it’s important that you be able to fill your lineup out completely and be prepared in case somebody gets sick or something like that."</p>[sc:pullout-title pullout-title="If you go" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p><strong>Johnson County meet</strong></p>
<p>Where: Indian Creek High School</p>
<p>When: Saturday, 9 a.m.</p>
<p>Admission: $5</p>[sc:pullout-text-end]
