All but one of the school records that Adam Destrampe set while swimming at Franklin have been broken, many of them by his younger brother Jacob.
Adam is OK with that. Records, he says, are made to be broken. He’s more concerned with maintaining his lifelong winning streak in head-to-head matchups.
“I don’t know how it happens,” the current Indiana University junior said, “but whenever Jacob and I swim at meets, some way or another, in a couple of events he and I end up in the lanes next to each other. We can almost always count on it happening in one or two events. And to this day, I have not lost to Jacob when we swim side by side.
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“Outside of the meets, I’m really proud of him, always talking him up — but when it comes to meets where he and I are racing against each other, I always tell him and (Franklin coach Zach DeWitt) that it’s the simple refusal to let him beat me. I simply refuse.”
It was that competitive drive than helped Adam Destrampe raise the bar for the Grizzly Cubs program during his time there, and it’s his brother’s talent and work ethic that have helped take that to an even higher level.
According to sixth-year head coach DeWitt, the recent rise of the Franklin swimming and diving program began with Alex Grissom, who placed third in the state in the 200-yard freestyle as a senior in 2012. The two swimmers most instrumental in the Grizzly Cubs’ growth into a state power during DeWitt’s tenure, though, have been the brothers Destrampe.
“(Grissom) changed expectations,” DeWitt said. “Adam took that a step further, and not only nailed that, but did it with a little more consistency throughout his time here. And then obviously, Jacob’s been leading the charge in taking it up another notch.”
Adam Destrampe, who was a freshman when Grissom was a senior and swam on a pair of state-qualifier relay teams with him, helped start the Franklin boys’ current run of fie straight sectional championships in 2013, when the Grizzly Cubs finally overtook Center Grove in DeWitt’s first season as head coach.
Franklin also has finished in the top 20 in the state every year that a Destrampe has been on the team, including a best-ever finish of 10th last February. This year’s team is expected to easily surpass that thanks in large part to Jacob, who already has three individual top-three state finishes in his first two high school seasons.
That the Grizzly Cubs have been able to build a sustained tradition of success isn’t at all surprising given not only the talent on the roster but the mental makeup of the Destrampe siblings.
Adam, DeWitt said, was a very hands-on teammate, always looking to help younger teammates learn and improve.
Jacob has tried to pick up that leadership mantle and run with it. He was never a teammate of his older brother at Franklin, but he got a chance to see how it’s done when the Indiana University-bound Adam was running workouts going into Jacob’s freshman year.
“I feel like I learned so much from him as far as leading other people,” Jacob Destrampe said. “Just watching him, how he interacts with the freshmen compared to the juniors, and what he tells people to do and how he does it. It was a perfect example to see how to lead a program.”
Though he’s a bit less verbal than his older brother, Jacob has tried his hardest to lead the Grizzly Cubs by example — figuring that when a team’s best swimmer is also its hardest worker, others will follow his lead.
Clearly, it’s been working.
“Adam was the perfect leader for me for a long time; the most helpful guy we’ve ever had,” DeWitt said. “Jacob leads by example in terms of his performance and his successes.
“It’s almost like they came in the order of what the program needed them to be.”
As the program has grown, Franklin’s list of accomplishments has grown more and more impressive. Jacob Destrampe was the first male swimmer from the DeWitt-led Franklin Regional Swim Team (FRST) to qualify for a junior national meet, and he’s since been joined by a handful of his current teammates. He also led the high school team to its first two state podium finishes in relays last winter, including a fifth-place showing in the 400 freestyle relay.
While his high school accomplishments have since been outdone, Adam Destrampe remains proud of the role he played in pushing the Franklin program forward.
“When I was swimming in Franklin, I was on a couple of relays that went to Indiana state meets, and that was huge,” he said. “The fact that we were able to have a relay at a state meet was unheard of, and now we’re having relays at junior national level meets. It’s something to really be proud of. Instead of having one or two really good swimmers, we’re now building an entire program of good swimmers.”
Adam has moved on to another program full of good swimmers, emerging as one of the top distance racers for a Hoosiers team that was ranked first in the nation earlier this season. The bigger and stronger Jacob is better suited for shorter distances; though he placed third in the 500 freestyle at last year’s state meet, he’ll likely pass that event up this year and swim in the 100 and 200 freestyles instead.
Jacob’s goal for the next month will be to go stroke-for-stroke with some of the top swimmers in the country and help the Grizzly Cubs reach even greater heights. What drives him during the offseason, though, is being able to beat his older brother and role model.
“I personally love it,” Jacob said of the sibling rivalry with Adam. “I think it makes me want to go faster every single meet. For summer season, I swim against him at the IU meet, so each meet that I swim at before that, I’m just trying to improve myself each time so that I’m able to race with him at that meet and attempt to beat him.”
There may come a day when Jacob is able to touch the wall first, but if Adam can help it, that day won’t come anytime soon.
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Adam and Jacob Destrampe have left quite an imprint on the Franklin swimming program. A look at their individual state finishes:
Adam
2012: Fifth in 500 freestyle, 14th in 200 freestyle
2013: Fourth in 200 freestyle, fifth in 500 freestyle
2014: Third in 200 freestyle, four in 500 freestyle
2015: Third in 200 freestyle, fifth in 500 freestyle
Jacob
2016: Third in 200 freestyle, sixth in 100 freestyle
2017: Second in 200 freestyle, third in 500 freestyle
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