INDIANAPOLIS
Sarah Hoffman should have been thrilled a year ago after helping Franklin’s girls to a runner-up finish at the state swimming and diving meet — but her individual performances fell a bit short of what she had hoped for.
The senior was feeling a similar dissatisfaction after starting her Friday night with a 10th-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle preliminaries, just .26 seconds out of eighth and a spot in the championship final, but she regrouped and salvaged her day in a big way. Hoffman came back to swim the 500 freestyle in 4 minutes, 57.44 seconds, good for fourth place — the Grizzly Cubs’ best individual showing of the evening.
Hoffman also teamed with Gracey Payne, Bella Ratzlaff and Lucy Ho to finish second in the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1:34.35, just 16 hundredths of a second back of Carmel, and swam on Franklin’s sixth-place 400 free relay alongside Ho, Allie Lacy and Paige Lawrence (3:28.68).
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"In the 200 free, I was a little disappointed with what I had there," Hoffman said, "but I tried to forget about it, because I needed to, or else the rest of the meet wouldn’t be the way I wanted it to be."
The big-time effort from Hoffman and several of her teammates helped put the Grizzly Cubs in a strong position to earn their third consecutive top-five state finish.
"The things we can control, we did really, really well," Franklin coach Zach DeWitt said. "We had girls all over the place stepping up."
Franklin’s 200-yard medley relay team of Lacy, Kabria Chapman, Grace Fisher and Payne won its heat and wound up second overall behind Carmel with a time of 1:43.77.
Chapman also moved into the championship final of the 100 breaststroke, going 1:03.72 for the fifth-fastest time of the evening.
The Grizzly Cubs will be well represented in the consolation finals as well. Payne wound up ninth in the 50 freestyle (23.64) and 10th in the 100 free (51.74), while Ratzlaff advanced in both the 100 breaststroke (10th, 1:04.35) and the 50 free (16th, 23.98).
Freshman Lacy had a solid state debut, finishing ninth in the 200 individual medley (2:04.00) and 18th in the 100 backstroke (57.44). Ho went 23.85 to join Payne and Ratzlaff in the 50 free, placing 14th.
Payne will be in two consolation finals today after finishing ninth in the 50 freestyle (23.64) and 10th in the 100 free (51.74). Ho and Ratzlaff will also be in the 50 free consolation final after placing 14th and 16th, respectively.
Greenwood sealed up some team points in the 100 butterfly, where junior Grace Nuhfer will be swimming in the consolation final after swimming a 56.43 Friday, good for 11th place.
"I feel really good about how I did today. I’m exactly where I wanted to be," Nuhfer said. "Having a spot, coming back to finals, and I just feel like I can go so much faster, so I’m super excited for tomorrow."
Alayna Kenworthy was 23rd in the 200 IM for the Woodmen at 2:10.00, and she joined Nuhfer, Naomi Weaver and Madison Peckinpaugh to finish 23rd in the medley relay. In the night’s final event, Nuhfer, Peckinpaugh, Charli Graves and Kenworthy took 19th in the 400 free relay (3:37.63).
Center Grove’s 400 free relay team of Kiersten Smith, Grace DeLuna, Gracie Marsh and Devin Trammell was just ahead of Greenwood in 18th (3:36.66). The Trojans’ medley relay quartet of DeLuna, Molly Stiles, Trammell and Smith was 25th in 1:51.04.
Junior diver Kenzie Mills will try to get Center Grove into the scoring column during the 1-meter competition today.
Whiteland, meanwhile, had a bittersweet night in the 400 freestyle relay — the team of Avery Herring, Amelia Edens, Alex Halle and Addison Daily appeared to put up a time of 3:36.79, which would have placed it right between Center Grove and Greenwood, but the Warriors were disqualified after an official ruled they left the block early on one leg.
Despite the disappointing result, Whiteland coach Alec DeWitt was happy with how his girls performed in their first trip to state, and he’s confident that with three of the four returning next year, the Warriors can build on the experience.
"It’s good for the program," he said. "We’re hoping to make it cultural; we’re going to be back here every year. That’s what we want and that’s what we expect."
If Friday night’s positions all hold, Franklin is likely looking at a fourth-place team finish today — and while a disadvantage in diving will make it tough for the Grizzly Cubs to catch Fishers or Northridge and repeat last year’s second-place finish behind Carmel, Hoffman isn’t conceding anything just yet.
"It’s not impossible," she said.
