IN Boys HS State Finals: Kibler Leads off 400 Free Relay in 42.9

2018 IHSAA Boys Championship

• February 23-24th
• IUPUI Natatorium, Indianapolis, IN
• Short Course Yards
• Results

TOP 10 TEAMS

1. Carmel – 417
2. Franklin Community – 203
3. Zionsville – 185
4. Chesterton – 151.5
5. Homestead – 148
6. Carroll (Fort Wayne) – 145.5
7. Bloomington South – 115
8. Fishers – 113
9. Munster – 107.5
10. Greenfield-Central – 77.5

In the finals session of the 2018 IHSAA Boys State Championship, Drew Kibler and Wyatt Davis each won 2 individual events to help lead Carmel to a 4th consecutive state title. Carmel’s margin of victory was gigantic again this year, more then doubling runner-up Franklin.

After breaking the national public school record in prelims, the Carmel 200 medley relay team of Davis, Stefano Batista, Kibler, and Andrew Couchon went just barely slower in finals than they did the day before. Wyatt split a best time of 22.13, followed by Batista at 24.78, Kibler at 20.91, and Couchon at 20.21 to touch in 1:28.03, compared to their 1:28.00 national record. Jack Franzman threw down a 19.33 to anchor the runner-up Zionsville relay team, which was the fastest free split in the field by nearly a second.

Davis went on the win the 200 IM in a new best time 1:47.95, posting great fly, back, and free splits. Davis split 23.78 on the first 50, followed by a 26.o4 on backstroke, and 25.53 on free, and his back and free splits were the fastest in the field. Davis battled the whole way through with fellow sophomore Tristan DeWitt, who finished in 1:48.12. DeWitt hit the 150 wall at 1:22.34, just barely ahead of Davis at 1:22.42, then Davis outsplit DeWitt by about 2-tenths on the final 50 to out-touch him at the finish. Davis then won the 100 back, finishing just .06 seconds off the IHSAA record. Davis blasted a 47.12 to win by half a second, largely on the back of a fast 24.12 2nd 50. His 23.00 split on the first 50 was also very impressive, especially since he led off the medley relay in 22.1, so when you factor in a turn to that, he basically took out the 100 back as fast as he swam on the medley relay. Bearing in mind that Davis is just a sophomore, it will be interesting to see what he does in the next 2 seasons.

Kibler won both his events as well. He elected to swim different events this year (I’m calling them different because I don’t feel like I can call them “off” events), choosing to swim the 50 free and 100 fly, where we would usually see him swim the 100, 200, or 500 free. He certainly didn’t disappoint in the meet however, posting a 19.38 in the 50 prelims, and a 46.81 in the 100 fly prelims. He was a little off those times in finals, but still pulled out a win in the 50 and won comfortably in the 100 fly. In the 50, Kibler went 19.50 to hold off defending champ Jack Franzman, who touched in 19.74. Kibler then went 47.16 in the 100 fly to win by over a second and a half. Perhaps Kibler’s best performance of the meet came in the 400 free relay, where he led off in his 2nd fastest time ever, 42.92. That came in under his IHSAA state record of 43.20, which he set last year. His lifetime best is 42.90 from Winter Juniors in December.

Jack Franzman won the 100 free in 43.70, which came in well over half a second over the field. That time was a litte off what he went last year, 43.44. The Carmel 400 free relay team of Kibler, Davis, Brett Sherman, and Jacob Mitchell combined to brek 3 minutes, going 2:59.96. They were .60 seconds off the state record set by Chesterton in 2014.