Center Grove’s Henry Lyness takes off at the start of the 200-yard medley relay during Friday’s state preliminaries.
Submitted photo | Jodi Meinczinger
INDIANAPOLIS
Center Grove coach Brad Smith had wondered after last weekend’s sectional meet whether sophomore Henry Lyness had hit his ceiling in the 100-yard backstroke.
Lyness smashed through that ceiling on Friday night.
Seeded second in the event, Lyness held that position with an impressive preliminary swim at IU Natatorium. He won his heat in 48.41 seconds, which put him just seven hundredths of a second behind top seed David Kovacs of Bloomington South. Those two will occupy the center lanes in the championship final this afternoon.
Lyness also punched his way up into the 100 butterfly A final from the No. 16 spot, going 49.83 seconds to finish the night in seventh place, and anchored the Trojans’ seventh-place 400 freestyle relay at the end of the session, teaming with Max Hite, Anthony Cuadros and Mason Bridges for a time of 3:09.28.
“My plan for the 100 back was to try to not go all out, save something for the (400 freestyle) relay,” Lyness said, “and that’s what I did. I had something left for my relay at the end.”
Put it all together, and the Trojans are in a good spot to make a run at a top-10 team finish.
“We probably came as close to a perfect night as we could have,” Smith said. “We always say you come to this meet and maintain or kind of drop, and that’s exactly what we did, so we are really, really happy right now.”
Franklin also put itself in position to finish in the top 10 as a team for the first time since 2021. The Grizzly Cubs’ 200 freestyle relay team of Gabe Holtz, Aleksandr Ries, Lucas Ackermann and Jacob Meinczinger hit the wall in 1:26.02 to end the night in fifth, comfortably landing in the A final.
Ries led the way individually for the Grizzly Cubs, placing seventh in the 100 breaststroke (56.81 seconds) to earn a spot in the championship final. Ries just missed out on the A final in the 200 individual medley, finishing ninth with a time of 1:52.96.
County rivals will also be side by side today in the 200 freestyle B final, where Franklin’s Isaac Layton was ninth in 1:41.55 and Center Grove’s Hite tied for 10th with a 1:41.63. The Grizzly Cubs got another individual B finalist in Lucas Ackermann, who took the 16th spot in the 100 breast (58.57), and its 400 free relay team of Holtz, Layton, Meinczinger and Alex Walden was 15th (3:13.04).
“Generally speaking, this is a tough place to deliver 100% of the times,” Franklin coach Zach DeWitt said. “(Assistant coach Colin Mothersead) and I just tabulated, and I think it was probably seven of the 10 swims we dropped time; that’s pretty tough to do, especially given the emotional nature of our sectional and just a week turnaround. … There’s a couple of swims, of course, that we want back — of course we don’t like being ninth — but if you’re going to be in the B final, you might as well win it.”
Center Grove’s 200 medley relay team of Lyness, Isaac Lewis, Nikhil Iyer and Cuadros placed 10th with a time of 1:35.47. That quartet will swim in the B final next to Franklin, whose team of Alijah Hall, Ries, Layton and Ackermann was 12th in 1:35.91.
Lewis made the B final for the Trojans in both the 100 breaststroke (13th in 58.20) and in the 200 IM (15th in 1:53.83), and he also joined Hite, Bridges and Iyer on the Trojans’ 200 free relay, which was 11th in 1:27.85. Hite just missed out on a second swim in the 100 free, taking 18th in 46.98.
For Franklin, Layton was 22nd in the 100 fly (51.53), Hall was 23rd in the 200 IM (1:58.90) and Franco Chirinos was 26th in the 500 freestyle (4:50.88).
With both local powers looking good in terms of potential team finish, all individual eyes will be on Lyness as he tries to bring home the county’s first individual swim championship since former Trojan Ethan Martin won the 100 freestyle three years ago.
The taller and older Kovacs will be favored, but Lyness isn’t about to concede anything.
“We’ve been next to each other quite a bit, and it’s been back and forth,” he said, “so I think it’ll be a good race. It’ll be close.”
“David’s pretty talented, but I will say you can’t underestimate Henry,” Smith added. “Henry’s just a motivated beast, and he knows he’s right there right now.”
