INDIANAPOLIS
After finishing Friday’s preliminaries with the top overall time in the 100-yard freestyle, Center Grove senior Ethan Martin was asked for his thoughts on potentially becoming a state champion.
He responded that the more he could avoid actually thinking about it, the better.
That approach served Martin about as well as it possibly could have on Saturday, when he swam a time of 44.02 seconds to overtake defending champion Braden Rollins of Boonville to earn the Trojans’ first individual boys crown in 16 years.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryMartin had opened the day by placing fifth in the 50 freestyle with a time of 20.29 — in part, he said, because he wasn’t yet following his own advice.
“I think I overthought that one; it was the opposite of what I said I was going to do,” Martin said of his 50-yard race. “So coming out of the 50 and going into the 100, I just kind of let loose. … I didn’t want to get that negative attitude and lose it, so I just kind of relaxed and just did what I knew I needed to do.”
“I just explained to him, ‘Listen, I have all the confidence in you in the world,'” Trojans coach Jim Todd added, “‘but you haven’t got as much confidence in yourself because you haven’t been to these big meets like all these other guys. You need to start feeling confidence.’ And I think he made a big, big stride in that 100 free.”
Martin’s triumph highlighted another strong overall showing by Johnson County swimmers. Franklin finished fourth in the team standings with 169 points, while Center Grove was eighth with 90 and Indian Creek was 33rd with 13.
Carmel won the team championship for the seventh year in a row, followed by Fishers and Zionsville.
In addition to his individual swims, Martin also anchored a pair of medal-winning relays for Trojans. The foursome of Ben Clarkson, Harrison Hite, Garrett Crist and Martin was fifth in both the 200 freestyle relay (1:24.45) and the 400 (3:06.82).
Martin’s otherworldly splits in those two races — 19.42 and 43.7 seconds, respectively — were personal bests. Center Grove set three school records overall.
Meanwhile, the Grizzly Cubs just missed out on some individual championships of their own. Senior Cade Oliver finished second to Zionsville’s Will Modglin in both the 200 individual medley (1:46.48) and the 100 backstroke (47.69), while classmate Mac Ratzlaff was the runner-up in the 200 freestyle (1:37.20) and fourth in the 100 butterfly (48.56).
Ratzlaff was leading the 200 free heading into the final 50 when his swim cap came off, disrupting his rhythm and allowing Hamilton Southeastern’s Keegan Streett to surge past him for the upset win.
“I didn’t notice it was coming off until the turn,” Ratzlaff said. “I felt really good the first 150, and the last 50 everything fell apart.”
The Grizzly Cubs scored very well in the relays as well. The 400 freestyle quartet of Ratzlaff, Ethan Pheifer, Oliver and Barrett Daily closed the meet with a time of 3:03.69 and a third-place finish, and the medley relay team of Oliver, Albert Nusawardhana, Anthony Ries and Pheifer opened the day with a time of 1:31.20, good for fourth place. Franklin also wound up sixth in the 200 free relay, with Daily, Ries, Nusawardhana and Ratzlaff finishing in 1:24.62.
Franklin also got individual points from Pheifer, who was 10th in the 100 backstroke (51.11) and 14th in the 100 free (46.40) and fellow senior Daily, who placed 12th in the 100 breaststroke (57.63).
Franklin sophomore diver Drake Keller advanced to the 1-meter semifinal round on Saturday morning before being eliminated. He finished 20th with an eight-dive score of 277.25.
Despite not getting the second-place team finish they had been aiming for, Franklin coach Zach DeWitt was still proud of where his team ended up — in the top four for the third time in the last four years and the top 10 for the fifth consecutive season.
“All in all, not a terrible day,” DeWitt said. “We just didn’t have some things bounce our way, and that’s how it goes.”
Indian Creek junior Joey Smith placed 10th in the 50 freestyle, taking second in the consolation final with a school-record time of 21.02 seconds. He later joined Sam Smith, Evan Dennis and Nolan Greene on the 14th-place 200 free relay team (1:27.92).
