Center Grove’s Sam Smith swims the 100-yard butterfly during Friday’s state preliminaries.
Sam Findley | For the Daily Journal
INDIANAPOLIS
It’s the final weekend of Sam Smith’s high school swim career. Nobody will be able to accuse the Center Grove senior of not making the most of it.
Smith, who competed for Indian Creek as a freshman and sophomore, punched a pair of individual tickets into championship finals, tying for sixth in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 49.79 seconds and then swimming the 500 freestyle in 4:32.34, also good for sixth.
“I had some high expectations, and I’d say I did a great job meeting those,” said Smith, who entered the meet seeded 12th in both of his events. “I needed to step up as a leader for this team, and I think I did a pretty good job with that — but I still think that’s an area that I can improve on.”
In addition to his solo exploits, Smith helped put two Trojan relays in medal position. He joined Henry Lyness, Connor Conkin and Evan Hernandez on the 200 medley relay, which finished fifth with a time of 1:33.65, and then teamed with Hernandez, Lyness and Jonah Brandon to take fifth in the 200 freestyle relay (1:25.39).
Smith also helped out former Braves teammate Evan Dennis, who tore his suit while warming up for the 100 butterfly. Wearing a suit he borrowed from Smith, Dennis advanced to the B final with a 16th-place effort (50.93 seconds).
“Evan just asked me if I had an extra suit and I had plenty on me,” Smith said. “We’re still great friends, and I’m happy to help him out any time I can.”
Center Grove earned another individual medal opportunity when Hernandez swam the 50-yard freestyle in 20.94 seconds, which placed him sixth on the night (and allowed him to avoid the three-way swim-off for the seventh and eighth spots in the A final). The senior followed up by posting a time of 46.27 in the 100 free, which put him ninth and into the B final.
“I didn’t swim as I planned, but I made it back to finals in all four of my events,” Hernandez said. “The 100 was an upset, but everybody swam great. I’m just happy to be coming back tomorrow.”
Lyness impressed in his high school state debut, earning a B final swim in the 100 backstroke (11th, 51.37). The freshman added a 22nd-place finish in the 100 butterfly (51.93). Isaac Lewis was 24th in the 200 individual medley (1:58.89) for the Trojans and Aleks Parsetich was 26th in the 500 free (4:48.03).
Franklin, which didn’t score any team points a year ago, will at least be on the board this time around, but coach Zach DeWitt still considered the night a disappointment relative to the team’s expectations coming in.
“I don’t take any solace in (scoring) whatsoever,” he said. “The goals and the standards are way higher here. This was a failure, and that’s on all of us, but probably on my leadership.”
Senior Brady Campbell landed in the consolation final of the 500 freestyle after finishing 11th (4:35.74); he was 24th in the 200 free (1:44.89). Freshman teammate Aleksandr Ries earned himself a Saturday swim as well, finishing the evening 14th in the 200 IM (1:55.09). He just missed another consolation final after winding up 17th in the 100 breaststroke (58.00).
The Grizzly Cubs’ three relay squads fell short of advancing. The medley relay team of Meinczinger, Ries, Isaac Layton and Michael Wilson wound up 18th in 1:36.82. The 400 free relay team of Campbell, Layton, Franco Chirinos and Meinczinger was 19th (3:15.39) and the 200 free quartet of Wilson, Ries, Gabe Holtz and Campbell tied for 22nd (129.00).
While Franklin and Indian Creek will be near the bottom of the team standings, Center Grove has positioned itself well to place in the top 10 for a fourth consecutive year.
“Our big dogs came up and stepped up tonight and really swam,” Trojans coach Brad Smith said. “Just like the girls, we just said, ‘We’ve got to drop,’ and for the most part, that’s what we did.”
Two national high school records fell at the meet. Carmel’s Aaron Shackell posted a time of 1:32.85 in the 200 freestyle, while Zionsville’s Will Modglin went 45.08 seconds in the 100 backstroke.
