Males’s Swimming Almost Knocks Off Wabash

A yr in the past, Franklin males’s swimming misplaced its twin meet towards Wabash by 159 factors. Running it again on Friday night time with almost the identical roster, the Grizzlies obtained very completely different outcomes.

The house workforce took a slim lead into the penultimate occasion of the meet earlier than arising simply quick towards the deeper Little Giants in a 123-118 loss.

Though the defeat nonetheless stung, Griz coach Zach Rayce was past pleased with the trouble his workforce put forth.

“It’s a different team from last year, with almost the same guys,” he stated. “They really showed their heart; they showed how hard they’ve been working in the pool.”

Franklin began the night with a victory from the 200-yard medley relay quartet of Sam Hittel, Nick Coy, Chris Mains and Kaden Cummins and obtained a 1-2 end within the 200 freestyle shortly thereafter from Keaton Stephenson and Isaac Layton. Zachary Jackson-Blaine cruised to a win within the 50 freestyle, Phoenix Simons was first on the 1-meter diving board and Mains was victorious within the 100 butterfly.

After Simons added one other diving win at 3 meters, the Grizzlies had been clinging to a slim 104-101 edge — however a 1-2-3 end within the 100 breaststroke, the ultimate particular person occasion, swung the tide in Wabash’s favor. Stephenson, Will Johnson, Bryson Howe and Jackson-Blaine ended the night time with a triumph within the 400 freestyle relay, but it surely wasn’t sufficient to erase the deficit.

The meet might have gone both manner, with Franklin getting nipped in two races by margins of .04 and .10 seconds; flipping both would have modified the end result, however Rayce wasn’t going to nitpick when his squad additionally pulled out some tight ones.

“Obviously you don’t like getting out-touched,” he stated, “but it’s okay whenever you put it all out there, and they did that.”

The Grizzly women and men, who swam races unopposed on Friday, are proper again in motion Saturday afternoon at DePauw.