Local swimming rivals: 'We’re really good friends when we’re dry'

CARMEL – Take a couple of teenage athletes from Indiana who stand 6-4 and wear size-13 basketball shoes, and you think basketball.

Not so with Drew Kibler, 16, of Carmel and Jack Franzman, 17, of Zionsville. Not that they wouldn’t become lottery picks if swimming had a draft like the NBA does.

For the northern rim of Indianapolis to have two such swimmers simultaneously deviates from convention. Indiana (population 6.6 million) is not the swim incubator of, say, California, Florida or Texas. When it comes to the pool, though, you won’t find two more hurryin’ Hoosiers.

“They’re making each other better,” Carmel coach Chris Plumb said.

The two juniors will lead their respective teams in the 80th state meet at the Natatorium at IUPUI. Preliminaries start at 6 p.m. Friday and finals at 1 p.m. Saturday.

In each of the past two years, Carmel finished first and Zionsville second.

Seedings suggest the top-ranked Greyhounds should three-peat. Plumb said they are aiming higher — for a national championship, which is determined by comparing times around the country.

It is that kind of ambition pushing Kibler and Franzman. Kibler chases national records, and Franzman chases Kibler.

They are reminiscent of two other friendly rivals: Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte.

“There’s never really that much hostility, especially when we’ve raced for so long,” Kibler said. “In the end, we’re all like one team. We’re Team Indiana, Team USA.”

As Franzman put it: “We’re really good friends when we’re dry.”

When they raced at the 2015 state meet, they represented other high schools: Kibler for North Central and Franzman for Brownsburg. Both families moved after their freshman years, and the Indiana High School Athletic Association ruled Kibler ineligible and Franzman eligible for 2016.

Kibler lived in Noblesville while enrolled at North Central, and his family moved to Carmel to be closer to both parents’ Indianapolis workplaces. (Kibler had been coached by the high school coaches at Carmel Swim Club, so the IHSAA invoked its past link rule, delaying eligibility for 365 days.)

Franzman won state titles in the 50- and 100-yard freestyles. Kibler watched from the stands as his Carmel teammates edged Zionsville by one point.

If anything, Kibler said the IHSAA decision enhanced his swimming because he focused earlier on the summer season. He won junior nationals in the 200-meter freestyle and brought home three medals from August’s Junior Pan Pacific meet.

“The hardest part was to be accused of not living in Carmel, which we were the whole time,” said Tracy Kibler, his mother. “Drew, though, was such an example of class. Never once did he act bitter about it.”

Junior Pan Pacs underscored what motivates Franzman. After Kibler won the “B” final of the 50-meter freestyle in 22.80 seconds, Franzman said he wanted to beat that time in the “A” final — then clocked 22.68 to secure a silver medal.

Similarly, Franzman dropped his time by nearly a full second to place third in December’s winter nationals in the 100-yard freestyle — just behind Kibler. Later that month, Franzman upset Kibler in a dual meet, swimming the first 50 of the 100 nearly as fast as he had in winning the 50 freestyle.

There’s no forecasting what Franzman could do if he pretended every other swimmer were named Drew Kibler.

“That’s kind of what I do at practice,” Franzman said.

The Zionsville swimmer is the more demonstrative of the two, celebrating victories after touching the wall. Other Carmel students are only vaguely aware of what Kibler has done, and he’s not one to tell them.

Franzman’s hairstyle was a bleached Mohawk at sectionals, and he often wears a fedora. He has a chest tattoo — M.D.C, Mind over Matter — in honor of his late maternal grandfather, Michael David Coombs.

So far, Kibler has superior credentials. There are reasons for that.

He is a muscular 190 pounds to Franzman’s eel-like 170. Kibler was in the water soon after birth — his family lived by a Putnam County pond and his parents were concerned about safety. He was swimming by age 3, competing by 7. Franzman didn’t become a swimmer until he was 11, following two older half-brothers.

Basketball was not their calling. Franzman said he can trip over his own feet.

Coincidentally, Kibler’s mother played high school basketball in Youngstown, Ohio.  Her father, Art Kovacs, was a longtime hoops coach. She said basketball was “their whole lives.”

So as soon as Drew was big enough to hold a ball, his mother gave him one. He had more fun churning out laps at a Noblesville pool. The kid was a freestyler, not a forward.

“There was no other sport. Ever,” his mother said. “I really did try.”

Kibler has had a hearing impairment since birth and wears hearing aids. He doesn’t use those in the water and once had difficulty hearing the whistle that alerted swimmers before races. As a child, he focused so intently that he fell asleep, exhausted, by the end of a school day.

He said he has few such issues anymore. He has become adept at reading lips, causing him to look at mouths rather than eyes when interacting with someone else.

That Kibler has fervor for his sport is manifested in his range. He won junior national titles in the 50-, 100-, 200- and 500-yard freestyles, setting meet and national age-group records in the latter two. His time of 1:33.36 in the 200 is 3.6 seconds faster than Phelps was at age 16.

It would be like finding a sprinter in track willing to train for the 5K. Kibler swims up to 55,000 yards a week, or 31 miles.

“Most people who have that kind of speed don’t want to do the work to be good at distance events,” Plumb said. “They rely on their speed. That’s what’s unusual about Drew — his willingness to do the work.”

Kibler and Franzman will face off at state only in the 100 freestyle, in which Olympic gold medalist Blake Pieroni of Chesterton set a state record of 43.52 in 2014. Kibler has gone faster (42.99), and Franzman nearly that fast (43.64). The fastest an American 16-year-old has been is 42.67.

The state meet is another lap on what could be Kibler’s breakout 2017.

He is aiming to make the U.S. team in the 200-meter freestyle (and 800 free relay) for July’s World Championships at Budapest, Hungary. If that sounds unrealistic, consider that his 200-yard time is equivalent to 1:46.69 for 200 meters — worth fifth at the 2016 Olympic Trials, .07 seconds behind Lochte.

Kibler and Franzman could be U.S. teammates again in August’s World Junior Championships at the Natatorium. Selection for senior and junior teams will be at the nationals June 27-July 1, also at the Natatorium.

Kibler seems certain to obliterate the oldest state record, 1:37.02 in the 200-yard freestyle, which has lasted since 2006. He said his goal had always been to set a national record. After doing so, he rebooted.

“I think that’s what separates other high-level athletes from the rest,” he said. “When you achieve something, some people get satisfied with it and want to take a step back. Other people, when they achieve something, they get motivated and want more.”

If additional motivation is required, Franzman is right there to supply it.

Call IndyStar reporter David Woods at (317) 444-6195. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.

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IF YOU GO

What: IHSAA boys swimming state finals.

When: Prelims, 6 p.m. Friday; Diving prelims and semis, 9 a.m. Saturday; Consolations and finals, 1 p.m. Saturday.

Where: Natatorium at IUPUI.

Admission: $8 per session or $12 for both days.