Columbus North’s Mridula Muthukumaran competes in the girls 100-yard butterfly during a swim meet against Franklin at Columbus North High School in Columbus, Ind., Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
If the Columbus North swimmers can take anything away from Tuesday’s boys season opener and girls second meet, it’s that they didn’t come in scared against a powerhouse program.
Franklin won the boys meet 113-61 and the girls meet 139-46, but Bull Frogs coach Mike Cunningham came away pleased with how his swimmers competed.
“It was a tough meet,” Cunningham said. “Franklin is a great team. But the kids stepped up and did something we haven’t done in awhile, which is, we weren’t afraid of our opponents. We got in there and raced with them, so that was great to see. We’re coming along and making progress.”
The highlight of the boys meet was a 1-2 finish in the diving competition from Dagan Kleffman (215.10) and Gary Streeval (185.95). Aarush Mahato took second in both the 200-yard individual medley (2 minutes, 18.56 seconds) and 100 butterfly (58.36).
Third-place finishers for North included Anand Neela in the 200 freestyle (2:21.69), Luis Valardi in the 50 freestyle (26.83), Hudson Clock in the 100 freestyle (59.10), HP Devaguptapu in the 100 backstroke (1:10.03) and Isaac Niewedde in the 100 breaststroke (1:13.65). The Bull Frogs were second in the 200 medley (1:54.65) and 400 freestyle (4:23.95) relays.
“The boys have a great place to start from,” Cunningham said. “A lot of them are faster than they were last year, so that’s pretty awesome.”
Mridula Muthukumaran had the lone win for the North girls, taking the 100 butterfly in 1:01.45. She also finished second in the 200 IM (2:16.12).
Finishing third for the Bull Frogs were Abby Proffitt in the 50 freestyle (27.29), Cora Tregoning in the 500 freestyle (5:51.87) and Advika Badve in the 100 backstroke (1:09.35). North took second in the 200 freestyle relay (1:48.75).
“The girls went faster than they did the other week (in the season opener at Bloomington South), which was awesome,” Cunningham said. “A lot of great swims. The kids did really well.”
