Franklin’s Swim and Dive team will be represented at the state championship meet this week.
At the 2-A West Regional Meet in Charlotte Feb. 5, Panther Swim and Dive competed against premiere competition from nearly 40 teams around the North Carolina High School Athletic Association’s Western Region. Against some of the finest high school swimmers North Carolina has to offer, six Panther athletes qualified for the state’s final meet of the season.
In the men’s 200-yard medley relay, Michael Frazier, Clayton Guynn, Luke Borgmann, and Hunter Cabe placed fifth with a time of 1:50:52, completing their relay just .04 seconds behind South Point High School in Belmont. In normal years, this time would be enough to qualify automatically for the state meet, as the top six finishers in each of the three NCHSAA regions plus the next six finishers at-large qualify for state. Due to precautions over COVID-19 however, the state is accepting just half that number this year, meaning the 200 medley relay narrowly qualified as an at-large entrant.
In the men’s 400-yard freestyle relay, Franklin fielded nearly the same team as the 200 medley, with junior Caden Tyler joining Frazier, Cabe, and Guynn for the lengthy event. Franklin completed their relay in 3:36, good enough for fourth in the region and a second at-large qualification for the Panthers.
In the men’s 1-meter dive, Franklin’s resident diver performed as well. Kyler Cochran posted a score of 225.35 in the event, good for sixth place in the region and a trip to the state meet this week.
Overall, both Franklin’s girls and boys teams did very well. The boys tied with Jimmy C. Draughn High School in Valdese for seventh out of 21 teams. Despite not having an individual qualify for state, Franklin’s girls tied with South Point for 11th out of 18 teams, recording total 12 points. Given the subdued atmosphere in the pool during the meet - only a few spectators were allowed because of COVID restrictions - co-head coach Dwain Picou said he was proud of the way Franklin’s girls swam.
“The girls swam first and did a great job – all of them improved on their times, but we did not qualify for the state meet,” he said. “They all swam exceptionally well in spite of all the restrictions. … It is very hard for us to compete with the year-round swimmers, especially this year because we did not even have our summer swim season and middle school swim seasons due to COVID.”
After qualifying for the state meet, the six Panther boys will leave for the state meet in Raleigh early Feb. 11. Cochran will dive Thursday afternoon, while the two relay teams will swim on Friday. After a long season of challenges and uncertainty due to the pandemic, Picou said he was proud of his athletes’ efforts.
“Dina [Picou, co-head coach] and I are extremely pleased with how our swimmers swam the entire season during this COVID pandemic,” said Dwain. “The girls only lost one meet to T.C. Roberson, and the boys were undefeated this year. Both teams won their conference championships and we were able to qualify and do well at the regional meet. We are really proud of both the girls team and the boys team for all of their accomplishments this swim season.”