Posted: Feb 28, 2015
4th Place finish for Swimmers
The Bulldog Boys Swimming & Diving Team took the state by surprise this weekend at the IHSAA State Finals at the IUPUI Natatorium, storming up the leader board and ultimately finishing 4th overall, the highest finish in program history. The Dogs were led by seniors Kyle Baney and Cameron Howard, junior Vince Partlow and freshman Jack Franzman, who won the 200 Freestyle Relay and were crowned state champions. Head Coach Josh Saylor was named the IHSAA Coach of the Year by his peers.
"I got asked many times this weekend if I was surprised by our performance and the honest answer is no, I'm not," Saylor said. "This weekend has been the priority for this team since day one. I knew we could swim times like the ones we swam and I knew we could finish really high in the rankings, I just didn't know exactly what it would look like. But we've worked tirelessly towards this goal and made it a reality. I could not be more proud of these boys and now that it's over, the finished product looks pretty good."
Baney, Franzman, Howard and Partlow out dueled Carmel to win the 200 Freestyle Relay, the first state championship in swimming in Brownsburg history and the first Swimming & Diving program victory since Chris Unruh won the State diving title in 1988. The Dogs crushed the school record in the event (1:24.20), one of 6 school records to go down. The same quartet finished as the state runner-up in the 400 Freestyle Relay, touching out rival Avon by .01 to set a new school record time of 3:05.74. Both relay performances were under the automatic time standard for All-American recognition.
Franzman made a strong debut at the IHSAA State Finals. In addition to the relay performances, the freshman finished fourth in both the 50 (20.85) & 100 Freestyles (45.86), setting new school records in both. Partlow set the final two school standards, finishing sixth in the 200 Freestyle (1:39.77) and seventh in the 500 Freestyle (4:32.72). Franzman and Partlow's individual times narrowly missed the automatic time standard for All-American recognition, but were well under the consideration standard.
During Friday night's preliminary session, the Dogs turned in several additional impressive performances. Seniors Joe Ancel, Diego La Torre and Adam Moll and sophomore Frank Schoemer finished 28th in the 200 Medley Relay. Ancel finished 24th in the 100 Breaststroke, La Torre finished 30th in the 100 Backstroke and Schoemer finished 30th in the 200 IM. Baney finished 29th in the 100 Butterfly.
Thank you to all of our parents and fans for your support during what was an outstanding season for both the Boys & Girls Swimming & Diving program. We couldn't do it without you!
