Zach Rayce was optimistic heading into this past weekend, but Franklin's performance at the Gail Pebworth Invitational surpassed anything the Griz swimming and diving coach could have hoped for.

"Every evening session, I was shocked in the best way possible with how we swam," Rayce said.

The Grizzlies' weekend got off to a rocking start on Friday, with Zachary Jackson-Blaine winning the men's 50-yard freestyle final in a time of 20.63 seconds. His preliminary time of 20.44 seconds was a meet record, the 16th fastest time in Division III this season and also left him less than a tenth of a second away from the NCAA's B qualifying standard. Avery Tomlinson finished second in the 200 individual medley (2:13.45) and joined Kat Lundy, Celeste Hollis and Petal Sloan on the second-place 400 medley relay. Franklin's time of 3:54.88 in that event was a season best, and it not only put the NCAA B cut (3:49.72) within striking distance but it also put the quartet back into the top 20 nationally this season.

Hollis won the women's 50 free in 23.81 seconds, a top-25 time in the country.

On Saturday, Griz teammates Alexis Fleming and Kaleigh Schuler finished 1-2 in 3-meter diving with respective scores of 407.55 and 360.40. During the evening swim finals, junior Kat Lundy provided one of the biggest highlights of the weekend when she secured an NCAA B cut with her winning time of 56.21 in the 100 backstroke. Lundy set school and conference records with that swim, which also ranks her 11th in the nation.

Elsewhere on the day, the women's 200 medley relay of Lundy, Tomlinson, Hollis and Sloan was second in 1:47.62, a time that currently ranks 34th nationally. Hollis was first in the women's 100 butterfly (56.91, 32nd in the country), Tomlinson took the women's 100 breaststroke (1:07.76) and freshman Keaton Stephenson won the men's 200 free (1:43.15).

Sunday saw Fleming and Schuler again took the top two diving spots, this time on the 1-meter board (410.15 and 394.50, respectively). Hollis and Tomlinson were second and third in the 100 IM, with their respective times of 59.26 and 1:01.73 ranking third and 13th in the country. Lundy continued her backstroke dominance by winning the 200 in 2:04.26, the 23rd-fastest time in the nation and more than 9.6 seconds clear of the field. Jackson-Blaine won the 100 freestyle with a time of 46.23 seconds, and Tomlinson was a comfortable first in the 200 breast at 2:25.20. Hollis took the 200 fly in 2:07.98, with her prelim time of 2:06.61 the 25th-fastest in the nation this season, and the Grizzlies' runner-up time of 3:34.98 from Landi Newcomb, Lundy, Sloan and Hollis sits 21st nationally.

Even past all of the event wins and nationally-ranked times, the Grizzlies got strong swims up and down the lineup. Sam Hittel (100 IM), Will Johnson (200 back) and Isaac Layton (200 fly) added top-three individual finishes for the men's team, while Bri Gogis was third in the 200 back for the women. Rayce noted that every Franklin swim was a season best and several were lifetime bests.

The coach made little effort to hide his exuberance.

"The team showed a lot of heart racing against some very impressive competition," he said, "and stepped up to the plate whenever they were in position to score a lot of points for the team and show that they want certain spots on relays — and they wanted to make a point that we will be a force at the HCAC Championships.

"In other words, I'm pumped."