Center Grove’s Ben Clarkston pulls away from the field in the 100-yard freestyle during the Johnson County meet earlier this month.
Daily Journal file photo
The sting of last season’s state meet has stuck with Ben Clarkston. He’s determined not to feel it again.
In both of his individual events — the 50-yard freestyle and the 100 backstroke — Clarkston wound up in 17th place after the Friday preliminaries, one spot shy of advancing to the second day and having a chance to score points for his Center Grove team.
Now in his senior season, he hasn’t forgotten.
“It’s definitely fueled me a lot,” Clarkston said. “Last year at state, I got beat by a few guys that I think I should have been ahead of, so coming into this year it really helped to motivate me and keep my mindset focused on trying to be as fast as I can.”
Clarkston was already pretty fast — but with many of the county’s top state scorers in his specialties a year ago no longer around, he’s moving to fill the void and establish himself as the top sprinter in the area.
He made a pretty convincing case for himself at the county meet just over a week ago, dominating both the 50 and 100 freestyle events. His times in both — 21.48 and 47.73 seconds, respectively — were not only good enough to win by wide margins, but they also weren’t too far off of his late-season times from his junior season. When he’s fully tapered in February, Clarkston should be able to find another gear.
Last winter, Clarkston was able to shake off his individual postseason disappointment and still help the Trojans in other ways — he swam the leadoff leg on the 200 and 400 freestyle relays, both of which finished fifth in the state. Center Grove placed eighth overall as a team at the meet, its second consecutive top-10 state finish.
Trojan coach Jim Todd noted that Clarkston and fellow senior Garrett Crist are both very team-oriented, so it wasn’t entirely surprising that when Clarkston was asked about his postseason aspirations, he spoke from a collective standpoint and wasn’t so much concerned with himself.
We, not I.
”We definitely want to win sectionals, for sure,” Clarkston said. “Our biggest goal is to place as high as we can at state; that’s the big meet we’re trying to place high at.”
Clarkston can place all of his focus on those two meets, since the pressure of the college recruitment process is out of the way. He recently committed to continue his swim career at Ball State next year, leaving him free to worry solely about the short-term future.
That future will culminate at the IU Natatorium on the final weekend of February. Clarkston and his teammates have plenty to accomplish between now and then, but the senior will no doubt be using what happened in that pool last winter as motivation to get himself in peak position for his last high school meet.
Regardless of what events he ends up swimming there, Clarkston will almost certainly be in the mix at state — on both days.
“We will not bring up state very often, if at all, between now and state,” Todd said, “but in the back of our minds we know that he should be there.”
