The showdown that the Center Grove and Franklin boys swim teams have really been looking forward to will come next time they meet — at the Franklin Sectional on Feb. 22.
Thursday’s dual meet between the two was, in the grand scheme of things, just one final tuneup meet before the two teams get into the home stretch of their postseason preparation. But the 99-86 victory for the host Trojans still served as a reminder that the Grizzly Cubs, who have won seven straight sectional titles, will have that run seriously tested next month.
"I’m sure they want to win sectionals, and we want to win sectionals," Franklin coach Zach DeWitt said. "They’ve certainly got the upper hand, and we’ve got work to do.
"We feel like we’re getting a little bit of positive momentum, but no doubt about it, they’re a way deeper team than we are, and they were definitely the better team tonight."
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The Grizzly Cubs got out to a solid start, winning the 200-yard medley relay to open the meet and holding that lead through the 200 freestyle, which saw Franklin’s Mac Ratzlaff outduel Ethan Martin, and the 200 individual medley, where Center Grove’s Garrett Crist edged Barrett Daily but the visitors still gained ground by finishing 2-3-4.
But the tide turned when Ben Clarkston led a 1-2-3 Trojan sweep in the 50 freestyle, and even though Franklin picked up a few more victories, including the closing 400 freestyle relay, it didn’t have the depth to make up ground.
"The fifth and sixth places decided the meet, and we’re a pretty deep team," Center Grove coach Jim Todd said.
Wins were pretty evenly distributed at the top. In addition to taking two of the three relays, the Grizzly Cubs got first-place finishes from Cade Oliver (500 free and 100 backstroke) and Ratzlaff, who added a butterfly victory to his 200 free win.
In addition to Crist’s IM triumph, Center Grove took top honors in diving (Caleb Crady), the 100 freestyle (Martin), the 100 breaststroke (Justin Xia) and the 200 free relay.
Lineups will change somewhat between this meet and the sectional, but both sides were happy to get one last look at some quality competition before sequestering themselves for the next three weeks.
"I know both of the teams are really knocked down right now, because we’re midseason, kind of coming into taper, so we both were in really bad shape," Martin said. "It was a really good matchup between the two teams, and we all had really good races. Both teams are super strong, so I can’t wait to see how it goes down at sectionals."
The meet was also the first for either team this season without the girls swimming, so events were packed more closely together — even with a pause for diving, it barely lasted an hour. Between that and practices before the meet, fatigue was definitely an issue for both sides.
It won’t be in late February.
"There’s a lot of time between now and then," Todd said. "I’m sure he’s going to switch his lineup around, we’ll switch our lineup around before sectionals, and we’ll all hopefully be a little more rested than we were tonight and swim better."
