INDIANAPOLIS
As Franklin swim coach Zach DeWitt said after the boys state preliminaries on Friday afternoon, kings are crowned on Saturday.
Johnson County has a good chance at claiming a throne or two today at the IU Natatorium.
Franklin heads into today’s finals in position to challenge for its third team runner-up finish in the last four years, and several local competitors remain in the hunt to win titles in individual events.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryLeading that charge were a pair of seniors who posted the day’s fastest times in their respective events.
The Grizzly Cubs’ Mac Ratzlaff came out of the day with the No. 1 time in the 200-yard freestyle after going a lifetime-best 1:36.43, just over two tenths of a second faster than Carmel’s Griffin Hadley.
The senior believes he’s got plenty of room left to improve this afternoon.
“I feel really good,” Ratzlaff said. “That 200 free was nice and comfortable the first 100, and the last 100 was pretty relaxed too. I think I’ll go a lot faster tomorrow, hopefully with a lot more people to race.”
Ratzlaff also enters today tied for second in the 100 butterfly after finishing his heat in 48.09 seconds, deadlocked with Zionsville’s Charlie Krone. Brady Samuels of Delta went 46.78 in the evening session.
Center Grove senior Ethan Martin joins Ratzlaff as a top seed going into the finals after swimming a 44.61, edging out defending champion Braden Rollins of Boonville by one hundredth of a second.
Rollins and Martin are also second and third, respectively, in the 50 freestyle behind Samuels. Martin finished that race in 20.20 seconds.
He’s looking forward to dueling again with Rollins today.
“We talked about it last year up on the podium last year after the 50,” Martin said. “We knew that we were going to be racing each other again this year, and it was probably going to be predominantly us. Him and I exchanged some words today, and we’re excited to race each other.”
Franklin’s Cade Oliver edged top seed Cameron Luarde of Homestead in his 200 individual medley heat and posted a time of 1:46.91, good for second in the afternoon and third overall. He came back with a time of 47.69 in the 100 backstroke, good for second on the day.
Zionsville sophomore Will Modglin is the top seed in both of those events; Oliver is eager to line up next to him today.
“I definitely think that tomorrow’s going to be a good fight for both of us,” he said, “but it’s really going to be coming down to who’s trained harder and who’s been more disciplined throughout the year.”
Several locals other than Ratzlaff, Martin and Oliver will be competing in championship and consolation finals today.
The Grizzly Cubs’ 200 medley relay team of Oliver, Albert Nusawardhana, Anthony Ries and Ethan Pheifer set the tone by putting up a time of 1:31.24, good for second in the afternoon behind Zionsville and third overall. Ratzlaff, Pheifer, Oliver and Barrett Daily earned another No. 3 seed in the 400 free relay, while the team of Daily, Ries, Nusawardhana and Ratzlaff was sixth in the 200 (1:25.04).
Individually for Franklin, Pheifer advanced to to the consolation finals in both the 100 backstroke (ninth, 50.35) and the 100 freestyle (15th, 46.40). Fellow senior Daily went 57.60 to finish 10th in the 100 breaststroke; he just missed advancing in the 200 IM, placing 17th in 1:55.65.
Ries was 21st in the 100 butterfly (51.08) and 24th in the 200 free (1:44.73), and Nusawardhana wound up 21st in the breast at 58.57.
Center Grove’s relay quartet of Ben Clarkston, Harrison Hite, Garrett Crist and Martin got into the championship final in both the 200 freestyle relay (fourth, 1:24.53) and the 400 (sixth, 3:07.35).
The Trojans’ other individual entries all came up just short of advancing. Clarkston wound up 17th in both the 50 free (21.18) and 100 backstroke (52.46), Crist placed 18th in the 200 IM (1:55.79) and Ethan Hite was 24th in the 500 freestyle (4:54.10).
Indian Creek will be back today to compete in a pair of consolation finals. The Braves’ 200 free relay team of Joey Smith, Sam Smith, Evan Dennis and Nolan Greene finished the day 15th with a time of 1:27.61, becoming the first relay in school history to advance to the second day. That same foursome nearly moved on in the 400 free relay as well, but their time of 3:13.84 was 17th, just .03 seconds out of the last spot.
Joey Smith was 13th in the 50 free (21.09) to get a consolation spot; the junior later placed 18th in the 100 free (46.65).
“That was our goal as a team this year,” Braves coach Brad Smith said, “to not just be satisfied with coming to this meet. We wanted to come and participate and extend our season one more day.”
Greenwood’s Conner Peckinpaugh finished 23rd in the 500 freestyle at 4:52.44, while Whiteland’s Brady Campbell was 31st in 5:03.71.
In addition to the individual action, Franklin has lofty team goals in mind — it’s set to battle Zionsville for the No. 2 spot in the standings behind heavily favored Carmel.
The Grizzly Cubs like their chances.
“Tomorrow is going to be a really good show, and maybe some records will fall,” Oliver said. “Every relay, every individual race, it’s going to be a fight.”
“I think we did really good this morning,” Ratzlaff added. “We put ourselves in position to score a lot of points and hang a banner.”
