Franklin’s Reagan Graves, left, and Chloe Vitatoe take in the action during a recent club meet.
Submitted photo | Danielle Smith
Despite having a pretty successful freshman year at Greenwood, Reagan Graves felt like she needed a change.
“I really didn’t have much left there,” Graves said. “All the people I’d swam with all throughout middle school, age group and the beginning of high school had all graduated — and my sister had just graduated, so I really didn’t have a lot left there, and I was kind of looking for something different in my training.”
When the Woodmen underwent a coaching change just before the start of the school year, Graves knew it was time for her to move on — and her best remaining friend in Greenwood, classmate Chloe Vitatoe, decided to join her.
“We had talked about it before,” Vitatoe recalled, “and then Reagan kind of decided that she was going to move, and I was like, ‘There’s no way I’m going to not move if she moves.’”
Both enrolled at Franklin in the fall of 2022, sitting out their sophomore year but practicing alongside the Grizzly Cubs during the school season and training year-round with the Franklin Regional Swim Team.
More than a year later, Graves and Vitatoe are set to make their return to high school swimming, and the two juniors should make a big imprint on what was already a talented — but young — Grizzly Cub squad. Graves was a state swimmer as a ninth-grader, finishing 11th in the 500-yard freestyle and also qualifying in the 100 butterfly. Vitatoe just missed making it as an individual two winters ago but swam with Graves on both of Greenwood’s state relays.
“They’re two juniors that have been in big meets and know big moments and know what that pressure feels like,” Franklin coach Zach DeWitt said, “and they’ve performed well in those kind of environments.”
That big-meet experience will matter in February. Franklin is trying to regain sectional supremacy after losing to Center Grove the last two seasons, and they’re also hoping to register a top-five finish at the state meet, something the Grizzly Cubs did for four straight years from 2018 to 2021. They were 15th last year despite two postseason relay disqualifications.
There will be a lot of grueling practice time between now and then — and it’s in that realm, DeWitt says, that the personality differences between the two transfers becomes more visible. Graves is harder on herself if she has a bad day of practice, while the more laid-back Vitatoe is generally capable of shaking it off and looking down the road.
For both, though, it’s still a work in progress.
“I associate my practices every single day with exactly how I’m going to do in a meet,” Graves said. “I have a hard time trusting the process, and that’s something we’ve been working on — knowing that I’m able to have a bad day and still swim really well in a meet because of that taper process and how we go through that.”
“Bad practices still freak me out, and sometimes it’s so hard for me to see the big picture,” Vitatoe added, “but I’ve also never been a good practicer, so just throughout all of my seasons I’ve seen it work out.”
Graves says that sitting out last high school season taught her the importance of being able to enjoy the sport, which has in turn elevated her performance level. She points out that she had a very successful championship season on the club side this past spring in part because she was enjoying herself more day to day.
For Vitatoe, it’ll be nice just to get back into a competitive team setting.
“I’m not going to take dual meets and competing for granted,” she said. “My freshman year, there were a lot of times where it was like, ‘I don’t want to compete; I’m tired.’ But now it’s like, ‘Well, at least I get to score points.’”
She and Graves should score plenty of them for the Grizzly Cubs over the next two winters. They’ve both got big individual and team goals for the season ahead and are eager to realize them.
“Those are just things that have been boiling for two years,” Graves said, “and I’m really excited to see what I can do.”
SCOUTING THE COUNTY
Center Grove Trojans
Coach: Brad Smith
Last season: Won county and sectional championships; ninth at state meet
Key returnees: Laney Brooks, Grace Clarkston, Kayla Fischer, Elizabeth Madden, Lara Phipps and Lexi Stuart, seniors; Clara Brandon, Izzy Ferguson, Megan McIntyre and Tenley Wilkins, juniors; Addy Matern and Mackenzie Nuttle, sophomores
Top newcomers: Karlie Dodd, senior; Rayah Rugenstein and Brooke Trammell, freshmen
Outlook: After winning the county and sectional meets by comfortable margins last winter, Smith has what he thinks may be the strongest girls team that Center Grove has fielded in quite some time, especially from a depth standpoint. Phipps is the centerpiece, a Purdue commit who should be at or near the top of the state podium in the butterfly, but she’s surrounded by a gaggle of experienced and talented sprinters. The additions of Dodd (formerly at Southport) and Rugenstein should bolster the breaststroke. Two-time state diving champ Mia Prusiecki is not back, but the Trojans should still be solid on the board with McIntyre leading the way. Franklin has closed the talent gap (see below), but Center Grove is still the sectional favorite until proven otherwise.
Franklin Grizzly Cubs
Coach: Zach DeWitt
Last season: Second at county and sectional, 15th at state meet
Key returnees: Camy Quiggins, senior; Kathleen Lacy and Lili Ratzlaff, juniors; Elia Evanoff, Kaelyn Gibson, Emily McCrary, Jovie Mowrey and Caleigh Schotting, sophomores
Top newcomers: Reagan Graves and Chloe Vitatoe, juniors; Faith Boothe, Addi Doss, Naomi Henry, Autumn Routien, Hadley Royer and Emma Small, freshmen
Outlook: The Grizzly Cubs will be young but talented, with star power in the junior class and a lot of promising depth among the freshmen. Ratzlaff, Mowrey and Quiggins were state qualifiers last year — with Quiggins earning a medal in diving— and they should at least be joined by Graves and Vitatoe, who starred at Greenwood as ninth-graders before sitting out a transfer year. Franklin may still be a sectional underdog even with all of the new talent, but it could well have enough on the top end to compete for a top-five spot at the state meet.
Greenwood Woodmen
Coach: Brooke Gilles
Last season: Fourth at county and sectional
Key returnees: Corey Bentz and Hailey Peckinpaugh, seniors; Eleanor Guipe, Ryann Marker and Avah Wallischeck, juniors; Maria Mears, sophomore
Top newcomers: Tatum Syers, senior; Annie Chrisman and Emma Tschopp, freshmen
Outlook: The Woodmen don’t have a huge roster, but they do have a solid returning core to build around, led by Peckinpaugh, Guipe and Marker. Syers, a contributor as a sophomore, is back after a year off, and the two freshmen should also provide some help. While they’ll likely be overmatched against the likes of Center Grove and Franklin, Gilles and her girls are confident that top-three finishes are within reach at the county, conference and sectional meets.
Indian Creek Braves
Coach: David Martin
Last season: Fifth at county meet and ninth at sectional; tied for 26th at state
Key returnees: Ella Taylor, senior; Alaina Perry, Lydia Ringer and Rya Stevenson, juniors
Top newcomers: Briley Buckler and Ellie Cole, sophomores, Kendall Guernsey and Alex Pfaehler, freshmen
Outlook: The Braves didn’t put a single swimmer into the sectional finals last year but have a couple who could crack that top 16 this time around. The team’s real strength, though — especially in the postseason — will be diving, where Indian Creek might have the best threesome in the county. Taylor is a three-time state qualifier who got a seventh-place medal as a junior, and Guernsey and Pfaehler won the last two middle school county titles. That won’t be enough to carry the Braves in smaller regular-season meets, but it’ll help them leave an imprint come February.
Whiteland Warriors
Coach: John Sincroft
Last season: Third at county and fifth at sectional
Key returnees: Alexis Dyer and Hannah Hrankowsky, seniors; Kate Barnes and Mallory Fields, sophomore
Top newcomers: Sienna Delagrange and Erynn Price, freshmen
Outlook: Sincroft has plenty to look forward to in the long run, with ground soon breaking on a new 50-meter facility, but in the near term the Warriors will likely go through some growing pains after graduating much of what was already a pretty small team. The four returnees were all sectional B finalists last season; the hope is that they can improve upon those finishes this winter. This will be a rebuilding year in Whiteland, with a focus on growing numbers and developing new talent.
