Indiana Swimming revived an old Olympic-year tradition this past weekend, combining the Age Group State and Senior State long course championship meets into a larger event, Swimfest, for the first time since 2016. The four-day meet concluded on Sunday.
The local clubs fared well, with Center Grove Aquatic Club placing ninth as a team with 984.5 points and Franklin Regional Swim team — which also served as the host club for the event — finishing 13th with 605.
Senior preliminaries were held each day at Center Grove, with the rest of the races taking place at IU Natatorium.
FRST’s Trevor Smith was the top area individual, winning 11-12 age group state championships in the 50-meter backstroke (31.45 seconds), 100 backstroke (1:07.25) and 200 backstroke (2:25.96). Smith was also second in the 400 freestyle and third in the 200 free.
Also earning a top-three finish for FRST was Lucas Ackermann, who secured a runner-up finish in the men’s 200 breaststroke (2:20.35) and qualified for junior nationals in the process.
CGAC’s Lara Phipps was also an individual state champion, pulling out a narrow victory in the women’s 100 freestyle on Sunday with a time of 57.30. The Purdue signee also finished second in the women’s 50 freestyle and third in the 100 butterfly.
Matthew Cuadros was second in both the 100 and 200 breaststrokes at 13-14 years old, and he also joined Aiden Lavery, Jayden Xia and Zac Groninger on the third-place 200 medley relay.
CGAC’s 13-14 girls quartet of Savannah Jahnke, Santana Gonzalez, Kaitlyn Leigh and Averie Matern was second in the 200 freestyle relay. Matern also claimed four individual medals, finishing third in the 50 free and 100 breaststroke.
Ko Yamamoto was third in the 10-and-under boys 100 freestyle.
Smith was the top local point scorer with 102 points, while Franklin also got 40 points from Rosie Ackermann and 30 from Naomi Henry. Matern led the way for Center Grove with 68 points, followed by Phipps (58), Groninger (50.5), Calise Ehresman (48), Henry Lyness (47) and Cuadros (46).
The Greenwood Gators and Indian Creek Swim Club both got on the scoreboard as well, placing 50th (18 points) and 55th (six points), respectively.
