Center Grove swimmers sweep Whiteland

<p>Jim Todd has been around swimming pools for a long, long time. He’s never faced a year like this one.</p><p>Not long after last high school season ended, Todd’s Center Grove teams — like everyone else — were out of the water for more than two months after the pandemic first hit. They resumed outdoor practices in June, but they didn’t compete in any sort of meet until October.</p><p>Todd really liked what he saw at that meet, though.</p><p>&quot;At that point I thought, ‘Man, this is going to be a great season,&quot; he said. &quot;But it’s really amazing how hard those two weeks hit you when they get quarantined.&quot;</p><p>About half of the Trojan girls team was wiped out by contact tracing during the high school preseason, forcing the cancellation of their first two meets. Several members of the boys squad are either on quarantine now or recently returned.</p><p>Those hurdles didn’t mean much on Tuesday evening, when Center Grove cruised to a dual-meet sweep of host Whiteland. The Trojans won the girls meet, 136-77, and the boys won all 12 events in a 159-49 victory.</p><p>As part of the COVID-19 protocols in place this season, each team kept its swimmers on separate halves of the six-lane pool all night, with Warriors in lanes 1 through 3 and the Trojans in 4 through 6 regardless of event.</p><p>&quot;That was the first time I’ve ever done that in 40 years of coaching, and I kind of liked it,&quot; Todd said. </p><p>Clearly, so did his swimmers.</p><p>Center Grove opened the night by sweeping the two medley relays. Grace DeLuna, Maddy Howell, Lara Phipps and Grace Clarkston won the girls race, with the boys’ quartet of Ethan Martin, Garrett Crist, Logan Kelsheimer and Harrison Hite following with a comfortable victory.</p><p>Kiersten Smith and Crist earned first-place finishes in the 200-yard freestyle, and Jessica Holland and Martin did the same in the 200 individual medley.</p><p>Amelia Edens became the first Whiteland swimmer to get to the wall first, edging Phipps in the 50 freestyle. Center Grove’s Logan Kelsheimer took the boys 50.</p><p>After a break to honor the Warrior seniors, the Trojans picked right back up where they left off. They won both 100 butterfly races behind Smith and Angelo Lawrence, Devin Trammell and Crist earned victories in the 100 free and Phipps and Aleks Parsetich claimed wins in the 500 free.</p><p>Center Grove swept all of the remaining relays, as well as the 100-yard backstroke (Clarkston and Hite) and the 100 breaststroke (Jillian Mitchell and Martin).</p><p>Though he said the forced absences have hampered his swimmers — the Trojans are still trying to catch up to where they were two months ago — Todd has been pleased with how well everyone has adapted to the difficult circumstances, not just during this season but throughout a very challenging 2020.</p><p>&quot;This has been the hardest to try to get to normality of anything that I’ve ever dealt with in my coaching career,&quot; he said. &quot;You know what? The kids are wonderful about it. They are absolutely wonderful; they’ve got great attitudes. And not just our team, but every kid in every sport have great attitudes — because they know, just like that, it could all be done again, and they’re soaking up every moment that they can and praying that it lasts for longer. </p><p>&quot;That’s the only positive I can see, but it’s a very strong positive.&quot;</p>