A year ago, Franklin men's swimming lost its dual meet against Wabash by 159 points. Running it back on Friday night with nearly the same roster, the Grizzlies got very different results.

The home team took a slim lead into the penultimate event of the meet before coming up just short against the deeper Little Giants in a 123-118 loss.

Though the defeat still stung, Griz coach Zach Rayce was beyond proud of the effort his team put forth.

"It's a different team from last year, with almost the same guys," he said. "They really showed their heart; they showed how hard they've been working in the pool."

Franklin started the evening with a victory from the 200-yard medley relay quartet of Sam Hittel, Nick Coy, Chris Mains and Kaden Cummins and got a 1-2 finish in the 200 freestyle shortly thereafter from Keaton Stephenson and Isaac Layton. Zachary Jackson-Blaine cruised to a win in the 50 freestyle, Phoenix Simons was first on the 1-meter diving board and Mains was victorious in the 100 butterfly.

After Simons added another diving win at 3 meters, the Grizzlies were clinging to a slim 104-101 edge — but a 1-2-3 finish in the 100 breaststroke, the final individual event, swung the tide in Wabash's favor. Stephenson, Will Johnson, Bryson Howe and Jackson-Blaine ended the night with a triumph in the 400 freestyle relay, but it wasn't enough to erase the deficit.

The meet could have gone either way, with Franklin getting nipped in two races by margins of .04 and .10 seconds; flipping either would have changed the outcome, but Rayce wasn't going to nitpick when his squad also pulled out some tight ones.

"Obviously you don't like getting out-touched," he said, "but it's okay whenever you put it all out there, and they did that."

The Grizzly men and women, who swam races unopposed on Friday, are right back in action Saturday afternoon at DePauw.