By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
BEDFORD – The Gabhart name dominates the school record board on the wall above the pool at Bedford North Lawrence – on the girls side of the ledger. Emma left her mark when she graduated in 2023, setting new standards in multiple events.
Not to be overshadowed, little brother – in age only, not stature – has now inked his name in history. Garrett Gabhart exploded to a record-setting victory in the sectional at Jasper, winning two events and anchoring a winning relay. Now he will chase a medal on the state’s biggest stage.
Gabhart and three teammates will compete in the IHSAA state championship preliminary races on Friday night at IU Indianapolis in the waters of the world-famous Natatorium. The top eight in each event will qualify for the state championship races on Saturday, while places 9-16 (in the field of 32 in each event) will return for the consolation race.
Gabhart has a great shot at his goal. He’s seeded seventh in the 100-yard butterfly (his strongest event) after blasting to the wall in 49.92 (erasing Andrew Swenson’s school mark by 1.08 seconds, an eternity in swimming). The irony was Swenson is now a BNL assistant who can take some credit for the Gabhart win. “thought he might be a little prickly about it, but he was proud of me,” Gabhart said with a smile.
He’s also seeded 13th in the 100 backstroke in 51.43. BNL’s last state medalist (the top eight earn that prize) was Cole Baker in the 100 freestyle in 2023.
“He wants to medal, beat a couple of key people,” BNL coach Adam Young said. “He has some real solid goals he wants to accomplish. Being seeded seventh, he will be disappointed if he doesn’t get on that medal stand.”
The question will be: how much does he have left in the reserve tank? Swimmers taper for a peak performance, and BNL usually sets the body blocks for the sectional. Gabhart approached it a little differently, knowing he had a strong rival in Jasper sophomore Grant Wehr in the butterfly. That spurred him to his record run, a four-second time drop from his sectional prelim race. He believes he still has time to burn off.
“I think I have a 48 in me,” Gabhart said. “It feels great, but you feel like you really want to race. You have so much energy, you don’t know what to do with it. The butterfly is just going out fast, killing yourself on that first 50, then coming back you kind of die.
“I get to race some of the fastest people in America, so it’s an honor. Maybe I will get some times, maybe I won’t. I’m just hoping for the top eight.”
“It’s always tough, because we knew he would have a battle to win the sectional,” Young said. “We’ve done a pretty good job of having the kids at least do as well, or close to it, at state. Better times is a real possibility.”
In the relay, the Stars are seeded 30th after clocking 3:22.81 in the sectional. Gabhart will join seniors Oliver Brown and Carson Puckett, plus junior Dustin Haltom, for that final event.
Brown was a member of a state qualifying relay last season, while Puckett was an alternate. They will make their exit a memorable one.
“It’s what every senior wants to accomplish,” Puckett said.
Haltom was the late-arriving party crasher. He missed significant training time with an illness and injury (broken toe) early in the season. He caught up quickly.
“It felt like a setback, everyone was a lot faster when I came in,” Haltom said. “I felt like I had to improve a lot quicker.”
The relay squad is shooting for a faster time, which would be quite the achievement after they shaved 10 seconds off their seed time during the sectional.
“We just want to improve from the sectional,” said Brown, who seemed to be the only one who got the memo about the tradition of shaving heads for the sectional. “We can definitely get a faster time.”
“If they can hold their time, maybe go a little faster, that’s a win,” Young said. “It will be tough to get back to Saturday’s time on that one, given the quality of competition. If they can maintain what they did last weekend, that’s a good job.”
Gabhart’s three-event night will be a busy one. He admits to being nervous. His motivation will be watching.
“I had big shoes to fill with the name,” he said, after mischievously claiming family bragging rights. “I had to live up to that.”
Action in the prelims will begin at 6 p.m. The finals are set for 1 p.m. on Saturday.
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