Center Grove’s Henry Lyness celebrates his victory in the 100-yard backstroke during Saturday’s state finals at the IUPUI Natatorium.
Chris Williams | For the Daily Journal
INDIANAPOLIS
In short-course swimming, races are won under the water more often than on top of it.
Center Grove sophomore Henry Lyness offered a definitive reminder of that on Saturday afternoon.
With a flurry of dolphin kicks off the final turn, Lyness separated himself from the pre-race favorite, Bloomington South junior David Kovacs, on the way to a first-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke championship during Saturday’s IHSAA state finals at IU Natatorium.
“The sport’s kind of going a lot underwater, of course, and we hit those really hard,” Center Grove coach Brad Smith said. “So we kind of had this feeling at the 50, we knew — I mean, David’s just a phenomenal swimmer, and we kind of knew that if Henry could be with him after the 50, he was going to give himself a shot. Coming off that last wall, we knew that Henry was going to take 10 kicks underwater … the work underwater is definitely what paid off there.”
Lyness finished with a time of 48.06 seconds, more than three tenths of a second faster than his second-place preliminary swim and solidly ahead of Kovacs (48.71).
“All I was thinking is, I know he has great underwaters off every wall,” Lyness said of Kovacs, “and I was thinking the last underwater’s where it’s going to be, because I knew we were neck and neck. So I hit every one of my kicks and made sure to go all the way and just give it everything I had.”
That championship swim helped cement a top-10 finish for the Trojans, who ended the day ninth in the team standings with 96 points. Franklin, which had also come into the day hoping to land in the top 10, endured some rough stretches and finished an up-and-down day 15th with 41 points.
“Right now, it’s time for us to celebrate and just enjoy it,” Center Grove coach Brad Smith said after the meet. “Because these kids have really worked their butts off, and I’m really, really proud of what they did today.”
Lyness earned another individual medal in the 100 butterfly, where he posted a time of 50.14 seconds to finish in sixth place, and anchored Center Grove’s 400 freestyle relay, partnering with Max Hite, Anthony Cuadros and Mason Bridges to earn eighth with a time of 3:10.57.
The Trojans’ day got off to a great start when the 200 medley relay team of Lyness, Isaac Lewis, Nikhil Iyer and Cuadros won the consolation final with a time of 1:34.93, moving up to ninth from 12th in the preliminaries. Hite followed with a 10th-place finish in the 200 freestyle (1:41.65).
Lewis, Hite, Bridges and Iyer added a 12th-place showing in the 200 freestyle relay (1:28.27). Lewis also scored in both of his individual events, finishing 12th in the 100 breaststroke (58.43 seconds) and 16th in the 200 individual medley (1:55.54).
With their entire state lineup returning next season, this weekend’s performance augurs well for the Trojans’ short-term future.
“It’s really important, because now everyone knows what it’s like,” Lyness said. “Now next year, if people are swimming the same relays, they’ll have no nerves and they’ll be able to swim even faster than last year.”
“All of our points come back next year,” Smith added, “and the kids are already talking about, ‘Well, this person’s going to do this …’ I think it only sets the stage for our building blocks for the future.”
As well as the day went for Center Grove, it largely veered off in the other direction for the Grizzly Cubs most of the way.
The nadir came when their 200-yard freestyle relay squad, which came into the finals seeded fifth and appeared to have notched a sixth-place finish in the championship race, were subsequently disqualified for an early takeoff on an exchange. The loss of those points proved crippling to Franklin’s top-10 hopes, which had already grown slimmer earlier in the meet.
Still, the Grizzly Cubs bounced back and finished the meet strong. Sophomores Aleksandr Ries and Lucas Ackermann, the only 10th-graders to earn their way into Saturday’s 100 breaststroke finals, finished eighth and 13th with respective times of 58.19 and 58.58. Franklin’s 400 freestyle relay team of Isaac Layton, Jacob Meinczinger, Gabe Holtz and Franco Chirinos then closed out the day by punching way up from their No. 15 seed to take 11th in 3:11.48.
Franklin coach Zach DeWitt hopes that the momentum of those closing events is something that his squad — which still won a sectional championship and posted its best state finish in three years — can build on.
“I’m hoping that we can use this as a springboard to the summer,” he said. “We bring back a lot of guys. … It’s really ironic that we’re going through so much heartbreak (today) after a weekend of jubilation, and sometimes that’s the world looks like. It’s not what you expect. … Today was a little more of a hill than we expected, but I look forward to what we’re able to accomplish with these boys.”
Ries was also 14th in the 200 IM (1:54.22) and Layton was 15th in the 200 free (1:42.99). Those two teamed with Alijah Hall and Ackermann to place 13th in the 200 medley relay (1:36.56).
Grizzly Cub junior Austin Clark finished 16th in the 1-meter diving competition with an 11-dive score of 392.10. Clark was 18th after the preliminary rounds but jumped up to 15th in the semifinals to advance. He was narrowly passed up by a pair of divers in the final round, missing 14th by just 4.05 points.
Johnson County’s other two diving qualifiers were eliminated in the prelims, with Indian Creek junior Skyler Jasper finishing 30th (161.40 points) and Whiteland senior Noah Grady 31st (154.45).
