The reigning two-time swim and dive champions of the Mountain Seven are back in action.
Through the conference’s first two years of existence, Franklin has dominated the pool, winning men’s and women’s titles at its championship meets in 2022 and earlier this year. In a Nov. 18 meet versus Murphy, Smoky Mountain, Andrews and Tri-County Early College, Dwain and Dina Picou’s teams took their first steps toward a third-straight title.
“It’s been going great so far. The kids have been working very hard,” said Dwain of the team’s preseason work. “We don’t have a lot of new boys, but we do have a lot of new girls, and they’re doing very well. … We had a lot of girls that swam in middle school who were eighth-graders last year, and most of them decided to stay in swimming and showed up for practice. They’ve been doing really well, and working hard.”
While many Panthers compete during the summer for the Franklin Amateur Swim Team, also coached by the Picous, the past month has been busy for the varsity team. Less than three weeks after the state’s first official day of practice Oct. 30, they far outpaced their early-season rivals at Franklin Health & Fitness.
In just their first meet of the season, three Panthers met official time standards to qualify for the 3A West Regional Meet in Charlotte Feb. 2-3. In the 200-yard individual medley, Franklin recorded two qualifying times, as junior Zoi Walker won the women’s race in 2:45.39 and senior Jose Gomez won the men’s race in 2:23.75. Both times were multiple seconds faster than the event standards of 2:27.99 and 2:48.99, respectively.
In addition to Walker and Gomez, senior Claire Ballard qualified in two different events, completing the 500 freestyle in 6:10.95 and the 100 breaststroke in 1:14.42. Both times far outpaced their event’s regional standards of 6:30.99 and 1:22.99, respectively. In the 100 breaststroke, Ballard nearly broke an 18-year-old FHS record of 1:13.21, set by Beth Long in 2005.
In the relay events, the Panther women met two more standards, qualifying for the 200 medley in 2:12.01 and the 400 freestyle in 4:32.73. The 400 free team of Ballard, Walker, junior Kate Phillips and freshman Kenna Keyworth far outpaced the event’s standard 4:42.99, while Ballard, Walker, Phillips and sophomore Alyse Remery met the 200 medley standard (2:12.99) by less than a second.
In addition to the automatic qualifiers, a bevy of Panthers met slightly lower standards to be considered for the 3A West Regional, including nine individuals and relays on the women’s side and eight individuals and relays on the men’s.
In combined scoring, Franklin earned 466 points at the meet, far outpacing second-place Smoky Mountain’s 152. As a team the Panther women placed first with 271, while the Panther men placed first with 195. The result was made even more impressive by the fact that several front-line swimmers – Jonah Brandt, Logan Guynn, Rylee Cassada and Brooke Borgmann – couldn’t attend the meet.
“It went really well. We had some automatics for regionals already, so that’s pretty good,” said Picou.
The Panthers will return to Franklin Health & Fitness after Thanksgiving Break, where they’ll rematch the same four opponents Dec. 2.