Girls’s Swimming & Diving Preview: Franklin Eyeing National Stage

A Colorado native, Avery Tomlinson has by no means been to the IU Natatorium earlier than.

But the junior is nicely conscious of the historical past of the pool, which has hosted many of the quickest swimmers on the planet at one level or one other for nationwide and worldwide meets. Tomlinson and her Franklin girls’s swim and dive teammates would love nothing greater than to cap off this season competing there on the NCAA Division III Championships in March — particularly because the Grizzlies are the host group.

“I would love to swim there,” Tomlinson mentioned. “I think it’s such an insane atmosphere.”

Franklin has dominated HCAC competitors, successful all eight convention championship meets, however hasn’t had any illustration on the NCAA meet since 2019 (????) This 12 months’s squad hopes to vary that, notably the all-junior quartet of Kat Lundy, Tomlinson, Celeste Hollis and Petal Sloan within the 400-yard medley relay.

“It’s going to be good, if we can just put the four pieces together at the same time,” Griz coach Rayce mentioned. “I think this year we’re just going to really prepare especially for that relay, and just see what happens. If we swim really well and get a B cut and have a shot at nationals, that’s awesome; if we swim really well and don’t have a shot, that’s still great. They all have high ambitions, they all work extremely hard, so it makes it easy to coach them.”

Tomlinson, the HCAC champ within the 100 breaststroke final season, says that relay group will get an additional enhance from the truth that all the juniors share a decent bond each on and off the pool deck.

“All of us came in together, and I feel like as freshmen our class came in super close,” she mentioned. “We had been reaching out to each over the summer, so I definitely think that helps. We have a really good relationship with each other; we know how people finish, and when they race bad. So I think just having good knowledge of each other and how we swim makes our relay a lot better, because we know each other really well and can work together.”

That camaraderie, mixed with the truth that two members of the junior class (Lundy and Landi Newcomb) are on monitor to graduate early, places a bit extra urgency behind the need to make it to the Nat.

“I know that would be a big, exciting way to finish out their season,” Tomlinson mentioned.

Rayce believes that a number of Grizzlies have an opportunity to make it to NCAAs as people, too; Lundy is the reigning convention champion within the 100 and 200 backstroke in addition to the 200 butterfly, and Hollis claimed titles final season within the 50 and 100 freestyle together with the 100 fly.

And then there’s Sloan, who has made fairly an impression on her coach this preseason.

“Petal Sloan has surprised me every day this year with how impressive she looks in that water,” Rayce mentioned. “Her 100 free seems to be clicking right now, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she pulled something out of her butt that surprised everybody.”

On the best way to nationals, Franklin will first attempt to safe that ninth consecutive HCAC title. Even although the hole between the Grizzlies and the remainder of the league has all the time been massive — Franklin had three relays disqualified this previous season and nonetheless gained the meet by 41 factors over Transylvania — sustaining that dominance is one thing that the group by no means takes as a right.

“We talk about it with the girls that, hey, this is still special,” Rayce mentioned. “I do think our girls are very driven to not only win, but win by more.”

And prolong the season an additional month in order that Tomlinson can compete in downtown Indy for the primary time.