Grizzly Cubs have fun, win on senior night

Franklin celebrated its swimming senior night with a dominating performance against rival Whiteland on Thursday at home.

The Grizzly Cubs swept all 12 events in the boys meet to win 125-61 and claimed all but two events in the girls meet for a 105-73 victory.

It was exactly the way Franklin wanted to send off its senior class.

“More than anything, we wanted to give (the seniors) good memories to look back upon,” Franklin coach Zach DeWitt said. “It’s really hard to swim fast in this part of the season because we’re gearing up for the sectionals, so we did some different things with the lineup. I let them pick the events, and hopefully this is a memory they’ll never forget.”

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Michael Couet, Jacob Destrampe and and Cade Oliver claimed three wins each to lead Franklin’s boys, who saw 13 different swimmers win events. Carla Gildersleeve, Anna McCahill, Jessie Fraley, Sarah Hoffman won four each for the Grizzly Cub girls, and 12 different swimmers picked up wins.

“We had some unheralded kids step up. Megan Clark was outstanding and Emma Oietras was great. We also had some really good swims from Ali Terrell, which was impressive,” DeWitt said. “Jacob Destrampe is Jacob Destrampe; he’s always down to swim fast. And Michael Couet had some nice swims.”

Whiteland had only two wins, both in the girls meet, but that didn’t mean the Warriors didn’t have a good night. Hallie Daeger broke the school record in diving with a score of 142.35, and Avery Herring had a nice win in the 200-yard freestyle. The girls 200 freestyle relay also picked up a win.

“We stepped up tonight and performed really well. We had a lot of lifetime best times, and our diver broke the school record,” Whiteland coach Marci Whitford said. “We just had some really nice performances.”

While Whiteland was unable to keep pace with the Cubs in the win column, the Warriors did have 13 second-place finishes in an overall strong night.

“Avery Herring, our freshman, swam the 200 free in a lifetime best time, and Addison Daily, another freshman, had a lifetime best in the 500,” Whitford said. “We also had quite a few of our newer swimmers step up and swim way faster than we thought. It was fun. It was a good meet.”