INDIANAPOLIS
Center Grove’s Mia Prusiecki, the state runner-up, wasn’t the only Johnson County freshman to make her name known during the diving competition — Indian Creek’s Ella Taylor and Franklin’s Camy Quiggins both made their way into the finals as well, placing 13th and 15th with respective scores of 411.85 and 401.25.
Quiggins was buried deeper in the pack early but surged with a strong fifth-round dive to secure a semifinal berth. She moved up again in the seventh round and wound up hanging on for the last spot in the finals.
“At the beginning, I was really struggling and I was kind of freaking out,” Quiggins said, “but I knew my fifth dive I had to get it together to make it to semis.”
Both Quiggins and Taylor had said that their goal this season was just to advance out of the sectional, so to enjoy the postseason success that they did should only fuel the freshmen up with more confidence going forward.
The next three years should be extremely fruitful ones for the local diving contingent.
“We’ve all gotten super close,” Quiggins said. “We’re all really good friends now; we’ve bought each other gifts before every meet. They really push me. Especially Mia — I don’t want to fall too far behind.”
“It’s definitely really good to have them there,” Prusiecki agreed, “because we’re not really in competition; we just always support each other no matter how we do. It’s really good to have people there with you.”
Setting a standard
Greenwood and Whiteland have both enjoyed a recent rise in girls swimming, and the seniors most responsible for raising the bar put on one last show on Saturday.
Warrior senior Addison Daily became the first female swimmer in school history to score at the state meet, finishing 11th in the 200-yard freestyle and 12th in the 100 free.
“I’m really excited for the future of the program at Whiteland,” Daily said. “Now that they know that they can do it too, and they stack up right alongside every other swim team in Indiana, they’ll maybe have more confidence going into the season. … We’ll be better, because they know that they can make it to the place that we made it to this year.”
The Woodmen got points individually from Alayna Kenworthy (11th in the 200 IM) and Grace Nuhfer (16th in the 100 butterfly) as well as from their medley relay team, which placed 15th.
Kenworthy, who will swim at Franklin College next year, continued to chip time off of her personal best throughout the postseason.
“Me personally, I was happy to be able to drop a little bit more time on my IM,” Kenworthy said after Saturday’s meet. “I’m really pleased with everyone’s performances.”
Five for five
It’s been a banner year for Johnson County girls swimming, and this weekend was hard proof of that. All five local teams scored points at the state meet, almost certainly the first time that’s happened.
Franklin finished in the top five for the fourth straight year, and every other county squad climbed higher up the ladder as well. Center Grove tied for 15th with 31 points, Whiteland and Greenwood wound up tied with one another for 25th with 11 points, while Indian Creek tied for 35th with four.
Daily believes that the rising tide in recent years has indeed lifted all boats.
“Franklin has always been one of the top contenders at state, and Center Grove as well, and I feel like swimming alongside them and intermingling with clubs and stuff has been really beneficial for all the teams,” the Whiteland star said. “I feel like we’ve all benefited from that.”
Franklin coach Zach DeWitt believes that the county now ranks among the elite swimming areas throughout the state.
“It wasn’t always like that,” he said. “You rewind the clock 10 years, and maybe we were placing one team here. But Johnson County’s a great place to be if you’re a swimmer, and I’m proud of all the programs that were able to traverse this terrain with us.”
