Franklin freshman Lili Ratzlaff gets set to break the surface of the water while swimming the 200-yard individual medley in a meet at Columbus North last month.
Mike Wolanin | For the Daily Journal
The burden of expectations on Lili Ratzlaff’s shoulders was considerable before she ever swam in a high school meet — but anything that’s been placed on her by others is likely outweighed by what she puts on herself.
For all of the talented swimmers that Franklin has produced in the last decade — and that her own family has produced — Ratzlaff just might possess more talent than any of them. And the freshman is eager to make good on all of that potential and become the best.
“That’s definitely my goal,” she said. “I think about that all the time.”
Already a beast at the age-group level in club swimming for several years, Ratzlaff looks to introduce herself to the local high school swim scene during Saturday’s Johnson County meet at Center Grove.
She comes in as a heavy favorite in both of the events that she’ll swim — the 100- and 200-yard freestyle. And even though she almost certainly won’t be at her peak after a big club meet this past weekend and a heavy week of practice, Ratzlaff is setting some high goals for herself. She hopes to go under 51 seconds in the 100 free and get to the 1:50 mark in the 200.
For some perspective, Franklin’s school record in the 100 is 50.99 seconds, set by Gracey Payne at last year’s state meet. Carla Gildersleeve holds the mark in the the 200 at 1:49.15, which got her fourth at the state meet in 2018. Both of those girls earned state medals and now swim at Division I colleges.
Franklin coach Zach DeWitt said that the county meet “might not be her time to shine” because of when the meet falls, but he’s confident that Ratzlaff will grab that 200 free record without much trouble this winter.
“I don’t know when she’ll go it, but I think she can go 1:47 by the end of the season,” he said.
Ratzlaff’s best times in both events — she swam 51.84 in the 100 and 1:50.77 in the 200 over the weekend — would already be good enough to get her into the top 10 at the high school state meet. But she believes that she’s capable of far better because of the environment that she’s in. An outgoing personality who gravitates toward older people, Ratzlaff has become enamored with the environment at high school practices and meets, and she feels far more motivated as a result.
“I think back to middle school, and it’s like I wasn’t even on a team, really,” she said. “I was so not into swimming my eighth-grade middle school season, and then even over summer I was still not into it, but then I came to senior group and everything changed. It’s so different. It’s so much more fun and I’m so much more interactive with people.”
If the camaraderie on this Franklin team wasn’t enough motivation, there’s also the desire to one-up everyone in her family — no small task. Older sister Bella swam at the Air Force Academy last season, while brother Mac and cousin Cade Oliver, both state runners-up last February, are competing collegiately at South Carolina and Missouri, respectively.
When it comes to Bella, Lili smiles and says: “I really just want to be faster than she ever was.”
Both DeWitt and Lili Ratzlaff use Oliver as their basis for comparison, though — DeWitt because Oliver was the only other one in the family that he coached as a freshman, and Lili because Oliver is the only one in the family who has qualified for the U.S. Olympic trials.
DeWitt says he sees a lot of similarities between Oliver and the youngest Ratzlaff at this age.
“She’s a little bit immature in the way that she approaches practice day in and day out,” DeWitt said, “but when she’s on, she just has flashes of brilliance. You get to see lightning, and she can catch it in a bottle. It’s hard for me to say if she has a higher ceiling, but I think that she might have a higher ceiling than somebody like Cade.”
Perhaps the scariest part about Ratzlaff’s prodigious talent is that she could reach the state podium in the 100 and 200 this year despite those not being her best events — or at least not the ones she would choose for herself (Lili’s first choice would be the 200 individual medley, which she’s also already swimming at a state podium level).
Because of their relative lack of depth, the Grizzly Cubs can’t afford to load one event with two of their best swimmers, and with junior Allie Lacy firmly entrenched in the 200 IM and the 100 backstroke after medaling in both as a sophomore, Ratzlaff is fine being slotted elsewhere.
“I’ll leave it up to DeWitt,” Ratzlaff said. “I think he knows what’s best for me and the team.”
Saturday will be the closest thing Ratzlaff has seen to a big high school meet so far, and she’ll likely be facing some tough competition in Center Grove sophomore Lara Phipps, a state qualifier and the reigning county champ in the 200 freestyle.
Ratzlaff won’t be at her physical peak — no high school swimmer is in December — but such a matchup should bring out her competitive side.
“Sometimes she’ll find herself able to tap into resources that most people don’t have,” DeWitt said. “There’s gears that she has that most people can’t approach, due to the pride that she takes in winning and how important that is to her. She’s very competitive. She’ll tell you she’s not, but she wants to win and she definitely wants to be the best.
“She’s just now figuring out what it’ll take to become that.”
