Center Grove’s Lara Phipps was a state medalist in the 200-yard individual medley and the 100-yard butterfly as a junior. She’ll swim in the 50 and 100 freestyle events for the Trojans this postseason.
Daily Journal file photo
For the state’s best high school swimmers, the sectional seldom serves as more than a tune-up for the state meet a week later. The top dogs can usually win their races comfortably and look ahead to the tougher competition that awaits at the IU Natatorium.
Lara Phipps and Lili Ratzlaff have no such luxury — nor do they really want it.
The top two swimmers in the county for at least the last two years, Center Grove senior Phipps and Franklin junior Ratzlaff will get an early taste of state podium-caliber competition this weekend when they square off against one another in the 100-yard freestyle at the Center Grove Sectional.
Neither star was willing to offer up much in the way of trash talk, but both are excited for the showdown. As the top two seeds in the event, Phipps and Ratzlaff will be in separate heats during tonight’s preliminary races, but they should be side by side during Saturday’s final.
“I think it’s always nice to have a race, somebody out there to push me,” Phipps said. “I’m honestly very happy that we get to swim together; I think that’ll help me to get a better seed going into state or just have fun with it. I think it’ll be good that she’s there pushing me.”
“I’m not going to lie; at first it kind of freaked me out,” Ratzlaff said. “But then obviously I know it’s going to help me go faster than I would have done without her, and so I do kind of thank (Center Grove coach) Brad Smith for putting her in that. It’ll definitely help me with my swims.”
On paper, Phipps appears to be a solid favorite. She clocked a time of 50.23 seconds at the Speedo East Winter Junior Championships in December, which would have been good for fourth at last year’s state meet. Ratzlaff’s best to date, meanwhile, is the 51.20 that she swam during the Carmel Swim Club Winter Invitational last month at the IU Natatorium. She was ninth at state in the 100 last year, missing out on the championship final by five hundredths of a second.
Both are chasing school records in the event; Phipps is going after the Trojans’ mark of 49.95 seconds held by Michelle McKeehan, while Ratzlaff is looking to erase Gracey Payne’s Franklin standard of 50.99.
The ramifications of the race go beyond individual bragging rights and state seeding. Center Grove has won the last two sectional titles and is favored to win a third, but the meet is expected to be close — and whichever side wins that main-event swim in the middle of the meet could get a much-needed emotional lift.
“It’s going to bring some run excitement to this meet,” Smith said. “It’s two top-notch, phenomenal swimmers, and it’s going to elevate the whole meet. … It’s already a highly competitive meet between the two programs, and that’s just going to raise the bar of it even more.”
Franklin coach Zach DeWitt offered a more businesslike assessment of the race’s importance, saying “it’s a six-point swing” in a meet where the underdog Grizzly Cubs need as many swings as they can get, but he did acknowledge that the head-to-head would offer an emotionally charged moment that should bring out the best in his best swimmer.
“She loves to compete,” DeWitt said of Ratzlaff. “She’s one of the most competitive people that I’ve ever coached, specifically as a female. She very much values the ability to race people that she believes to be good. She really likes racing Lara, I know that, so between her being competitive and her enjoying the fun parts of the rivalry, she’s really looking forward to it. It’s way better for her — it’s going to bring the best out in her.”
The matchup happened somewhat by accident. Phipps medaled in the 200 individual medley and the 100 butterfly at last year’s state meet, and Ratzlaff trained for the IM for much of the season in anticipation of a duel with Phipps in that event. But when Ratzlaff threw down a time of 1:48.68 in the 200 freestyle at the CSC Winter Invitational last month — finishing third behind defending state champ Lynsey Bowen and her Carmel teammate Molly Sweeney — she and the Franklin coaching staff opted for a strategic shift, choosing the two freestyle events.
Phipps, meanwhile, says she saw a clearer path to higher state finishes in the 50 and 100 free than she did in the IM or the fly this year, especially after how she fared at that Speedo meet in December.
“It really had everything to do with what Lara wanted to do at the state meet,” Smith said. “The IM is just not in her heart this year, and obviously she’s swimming really well in freestyle. Swam super well at junior nats, and that kind of gave her some confidence in those events.”
Ratzlaff is a heavy favorite in the 200 free, an event in which she already holds the Franklin school record and could very well finish in the top three at the state meet. Phipps, likewise, is the odds-on choice in the 50 free, where her season-best time of 23.03 seconds is well clear of anyone else in the field. She clocked a 23.02 in the event at the Speedo meet, which earned her a spot in the top 16 going against several of the top swimmers in the nation.
There shouldn’t be much drama in either of those events, but the intrigue of the 100 free more than makes up for it. There may not be another sectional race in the state that pits two likely state finalists against one another, much less one that could help determine the team championship in the process.
Phipps and Ratzlaff could easily end up swimming next to each other in the championship final in the 100 at next week’s state meet. Getting that matchup a week ahead of time is a treat that every Johnson County swim fan can get excited about as much as the two swimmers involved are.
“It definitely puts me into reality of, ‘Wow, this is basically like state,’ that 100 free,” Ratzlaff said. “(Phipps is) really, really good, obviously. She’s going to Purdue, she’s got a good future ahead of her … so I’m very locked in for sure, more on that 100, than I thought I would have to be for sectionals.”
IF YOU GO
Center Grove Sectional
When: Today, 5:30 p.m. (swimming prelims); Saturday, 9 a.m. (diving prelims) and 1 p.m. (swimming and diving finals)
Participating teams: Center Grove, Franklin, Greenwood, Indian Creek, Whiteland, Martinsville, Mooresville, Perry Meridian, Southport
Admission: $7 per session, 12 both sessions
Advancement: Event winners and anyone reaching the automatic state qualifying time, plus the next fastest swimmers as needed to bring the number of state entrants to 32 in each event. In diving, the top four finishers qualify for the regional round.
