The Greenwood medley relay team gets ready for their heat during the state preliminaries on Friday.
Rob Baker | For the Daily Journal
INDIANAPOLIS
On one of the fastest nights in Indiana high school girls swimming history, keeping pace was even tougher than usual — but as has been the case for most of recent history, Johnson County managed just fine.
Four state records fell and another was tied during Friday evening’s state preliminaries at the IU Natatorium, but the locals were able to keep pace with some of the top competition in the nation.
Franklin, Center Grove and Greenwood all assured themselves scoring positions in today’s finals, with all hoping to duplicate or improve upon their top-25 team finishes from last year’s meet. Four individuals from county schools — Franklin’s Allie Lacy, Lili Ratzlaff and Paige Lawrence and Center Grove’s Lara Phipps — will be competing in championship finals today, with the Grizzly Cubs and Trojans also securing top-eight relay spots.
“I think our whole sectional was very well represented today,” Greenwood coach Ray Onisko said. “We all came in here and put our best foot forward.”
The Grizzly Cubs, who have wound up in the top five each of the last four years, positioned themselves for another strong showing, landing in five different A finals overall.
Lacy had a particularly strong day for the Grizzly Cubs, placing third in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:02.49. She’ll be positioned today next to the top seed and defending champ, Devon Kitchel of Zionsville. Lacy was also eighth in the 100 backstroke (56.20) — making the A final by a hundredth of a second.
“I think that’s the luckiest I’ve ever been,” she said.
Lacy also led off Franklin’s 400-yard freestyle relay, joining Ratzlaff, Jenna Miller and Lawrence to finish the night in fifth (3:28.95).
Franklin’s 200 medley relay team of Allie and Kathleen Lacy, Ratzlaff and Miller wound up 11th in 1:46.43 — about the only real negative for the Grizzly Cubs on the night.
“Medley relay hurt a little bit; we were counting on that getting in (the top eight),” Franklin coach Zach DeWitt said. “All the other swims we needed in, we did get. It feels like this championship season, the prelims we’ve not been as sharp as we are in the finals, and so I do expect us perhaps to be a bit sharper.”
Ratzlaff had a productive state debut. The freshman was fifth in the 200 freestyle (1:49.53) and 11th in the 100 free (51.90). Lawrence, meanwhile, slid into the A final of the 500 freestyle, turning in a time of 5:02.11 to snag the eighth spot. The senior also returns for the B final in the 200 free after placing 14th in 1:53.06.
Both of her times were personal bests.
“That was what I was working for for the past three years,” Lawrence said of clinching a top-eight finish in the 500, “so just being able to do that was a really big moment for me. … My mindset for tomorrow is whatever happens; I want to go out there and have fun, because it’s the last time I’ll ever be able to do this.”
Miller was 18th in the 100 freestyle (53.01) and 26th in the 50 free (24.72).
Center Grove also acquitted itself well on Friday, led by Phipps, who rolled into the 100 butterfly championship final with the night’s fourth-best time (55.78). The sophomore also made it back for the B final in the 200 free by finishing 16th (1:53.27).
“I thought I would probably get top eight senior year, and I wouldn’t even be close my sophomore or junior year,” Phipps said. “So this is really exciting and really eye-opening, that I might be able to be really good.”
The Trojans excelled on their two freestyle relays, with the 200-yard quartet of Lexi Stuart, Grace Clarkston, Kiersten Smith and Phipps finishing eighth (1:36.03) to secure a lane in the A final. The 400 free group of Stuart, Smith, Kylie Treat and Phipps was 12th in 3:34.08.
Stuart was 21st in the 50 freestyle (24.31) for Center Grove. Smith was 25th in the 200 free (1:56.66) and 29th in the 100 (54.81).
Greenwood punched a return ticket in the 200 medley relay, with Chloe Vitatoe, Madison Peckinpaugh, Naomi Weaver and Reagan Graves coming in 13th with a time of 1:48.17.
Graves later placed 12th in the 500 freestyle, earning a berth in the consolation final. The freshman was 23rd in the 100 butterfly (58.30), where she finished one spot ahead of teammate Weaver (24th, 58.48).
“Overall, we swam pretty well today, especially coming off that short week having (sectional) finals on Monday,” Greenwood coach Ray Onisko said.
