Will Woolever
sports@thefranklinpress.com
Franklin’s 2020/21 swim season is officially in the books.
After months of uncertainty, canceled meets and concern over the coronavirus pandemic, six Panther swimmers represented Franklin at the state 2-A swim and dive meets in Raleigh Feb. 11-12. Against the finest swimmers and divers from more than 60 high schools around the state, one diver and two relay teams performed admirably on the biggest stage.
In the men’s 400-yard freestyle relay, Clayton Guynn, Caden Tyler, Hunter Cabe and Michael Frazier recorded an impressive time, finishing eighth in three minutes and 35 seconds. The 3:35:35 mark was one second faster than the relay’s time at the 2-A West Regional Meet the previous week, coming in just .13 seconds faster than Croatan High School in Newport.
Franklin’s men’s 200 yard medley relay, made up of Frazier, Cabe, Guynn, and sophomore Luke Borgmann was not as lucky however, receiving a disqualification when a swimmer left the starting block before his teammate touched the wall. While the nullification was a disappointing result for the relay’s final race of the season, head coach Dwain Picou said such disqualifications are relatively common.
“If you look at the other relays, all but one had at least one disqualification,” said Picou of the six relay events run at the meet. “In a relay you’re trying to hit the water the second your teammate touches the wall, so in a big meet like this sometimes swimmers just get excited. You’ll see it fairly often in meets like this.”
In the State Championship Dive meet, the Panthers’ resident diver Kyler Cochran represented Franklin in the 1-meter dive. Cochran received a judges’ score of 226.0, good for eighth place just 14.6 points behind the seventh-place finisher. Thanks to Cochran, Franklin was one of only 10 teams statewide to field a diver in either the boys or girls events, as the events are generally dominated by private and charter schools in suburban areas (Cochran travels to Asheville, the closest place to Franklin with a suitable diving board, to practice).
Overall, Franklin tied with six other teams for 20th out of 28.
While Cochran and the two relay teams represented Franklin admirably at state, in a normal year they would have had more company from their teammates. Due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic this year, the North Carolina High School Athletic Association accepted just half its normal number of swimmers for regionals and state. In past years, the girls team’s 11th-place finish at regionals would have qualified them for state, while Clayton Guynn’s 6th-place 100-yard butterfly would have entered him into the individual event. Other individuals and relays that likely would have advanced barely missed the cut. Franklin’s swimmers were also at a disadvantage at state because many of their competitors train in the pool year-round, while this year’s Macon Middle School and Franklin Area Swim Team seasons were cut short due to the virus. Luckily, the Panthers should be right back in the thick of things next year as only two swimmers – Michael Frazier and Olivia Stahl – will be graduating this spring. Despite the team’s wide array of obstacles this year, Picou said he and co-head coach Dina Picou were extremely proud of their swimmers’ efforts in a unique 2020-21 season.
“It seemed like we were closer as a team this year. I don’t know if that’s a result of COVID, but it just felt like everyone got along really well,” he said. “The kids just came in every day and got right down to business. They did an unbelievable job.”