Center Grove’s Lara Phipps celebrates a win and school record in the 100-yard freestyle during Saturday’s sectional.
Chris Williams | For the Daily Journal
In a lightning-fast sectional that featured at least one potential state medalist in every event, Lara Phipps was still on a different level than everybody else.
The Center Grove senior set school records on all four of her swims, including a big 100-yard freestyle victory that shifted momentum in the host Trojans’ favor on the way to a third straight sectional championship. Center Grove finished with 483 points to hold off runner-up Franklin, which finished with 463.
“When you hang your hat on somebody like Lara, you’re allowed to breathe a little bit easier,” Trojans coach Brad Smith said. “Knowing that Lili Ratzlaff’s in the lane next to you, you can’t really breathe a lot easier, but Lara’s been a rock, just calm and cool, and I think the good thing with that is, the other kids watch that.”
The Grizzly Cubs were still well within striking distance midway through, down by just two points (221-219) after the 100 butterfly. But in a big 100 free showdown with Ratzlaff, Phipps led from start to finish and put up a time of 49.69 seconds, breaking the school record and delivering an emotional shot to the Grizzly Cubs in the process.
Ratzlaff finished in 50.58 seconds, good enough to break Franklin’s school mark and easily qualify for the state meet, but the die had been cast. Between that race, the Trojans negating the Grizzly Cubs’ expected scoring advantage in the 500 free immediately afterward and Phipps joining Addyson Matern, Lexi Stuart and Tenley Wilkins to win the 200 freestyle relay in a school-record time of 1:34.18, any window of opportunity that Franklin had to get back on top was effectively closed.
“That was the back-breaker of the day,” Franklin coach Zach DeWitt said of Phipps’ 100 victory.
The Grizzly Cubs ensured that the home team was going to have to swim extremely well to retain the crown, and the Trojans did exactly that, resulting in one of the state’s most loaded sectional meets.
Franklin had landed the first punch when its 200-yard medley relay team of Chloe Vitatoe, Emma Small, Jovie Mowrey and Ratzlaff hit the wall in 1:45.74 to narrowly hold off the Center Grove foursome of Wilkins, Karlie Dodd, Kayla Fischer and Stuart, which finished in 1:45.90.
Ratzlaff and teammate Reagan Graves then went 1-2 in the 200 freestyle, posting state qualifying times of 1:49.75 and 1:51.94, respectively; Graves later cruised to a first-place finish in the 500 free at 5:07.56.
Dodd won the 200 individual medley comfortably in 2:06.32 for the Trojans, and she finished her day with a similarly impressive victory in the 100 breaststroke (1:03.67). After Dodd’s IM win, Phipps swam a school-record time of 23.04 seconds to lead a 1-2-3 sweep of the 50 freestyle.
The Grizzly Cubs were able to soften the blow from that 50 free bloodbath by picking up 16 points in diving — senior Camy Quiggins finished third with a score of 402.85, while the Trojans did not have any divers entered — but Center Grove took the lead for good in the 100 fly and pulled away over the next three events.
Stuart, Clara Brandon, Matern and Phipps closed out the meet by pulling away from Franklin in the 400 free relay, setting yet another school record with a time of 3:27.07. The Grizzly Cubs’ time of 3:29.23 was still good enough to secure a top-eight state seed.
Indian Creek senior diver Ella Taylor pulled away from the field to win with a score of 460.55; she and Quiggins earned trips to Tuesday’s regional in Jasper.
“I was definitely a little bit nervous about my last two dives, because they’ve been a little bit wonky,” Taylor said, “but I kind of got it together over the past week.”
Even beyond the event winners, the meet delivered plenty of state qualifying swims. Matern put up automatic qualifying times in both the 200 free (1:53.19) and the 100 butterfly (56.89), and Center Grove also advanced Wilkins in the 100 freestyle (53.14), Stuart in the 50 free (24.22) and freshman Rayah Rugenstein in the 100 breaststroke (1:06.54),
Franklin easily advanced all three of its relays and got an additional individual qualifier in junior Chloe Vitatoe, who earned a state callback in the 100 butterfly (58.03) — but even as an underdog with no senior swimmers on the roster, it was still hoping for better than a second-place team finish on Saturday.
DeWitt, though, was still able to find a silver lining beneath the sting of defeat.
“My favorite thing about competition and sports is every time you step onto a field or enter the pool, there’s a chance you win and there’s a chance you lose, and how you act underneath that environment is what I love most about all this,” he said. “We answered the call. We’ve got a lot of freshmen … of last year’s roster, I think only four of them swam in this particular meet. It’s a program-building day for us; I’m really proud of the girls.”
Whitleland finished fifth in the team standings with 191 points, while Greenwood was close behind in seventh with 185; Woodmen senior Hailey Peckinpaugh was runner-up in the 500 free (5:14.18) and just missed getting a callback for state. Indian Creek (43 points) was ninth.
Though Saturday’s meet had plenty of moments worth dwelling on, both Center Grove and Franklin were eager to shift their attention to next weekend’s state meet as quickly as possible.
“The number one thing we can do is turn the page,” DeWitt said, “and I’m talking by the time we get out to the parking lot, I expect these girls to turn their focus to that.”
Phipps, for her part, is excited for the opportunities still in front of her — she’s headed into the state meet as the top seed in the 100 freestyle, and the Trojans are also seeded first in the 200 free relay. The idea of potentially ending her career with a state championship hadn’t quite registered in the immediate aftermath of her blistering sectional performance.
“That would be incredible,” Phipps said. “I don’t know how likely that is, but just to be up there, to go in as that first seed, I mean, I can’t put it into words. I’m just ready.”
With three relays seeded in the top 10 and plenty of individuals advancing, the Trojans appear to have positioned themselves well for their first top-five state finish in more than a decade.
“I think Center Grove swimming is going to be back on the map at the state meet,” Smith said, “and we’re really, really excited about that.”
