Indiana
Alex Shackell Swims 50.73 in 100 Fly Prelims at Indiana State Championship Meet
Indiana High School Girls’ State Swimming & Diving Championships
Carmel senior and U.S. Olympian Alex Shackell cruised to a top seed in her lone individual event on Friday and is swimming all three races as the Greyhounds chase their 39th consecutive Indiana high school state championship.
Shackell swam 50.73 in the 100 yard fly, which is about half-a-second off her state record of 50.25 from last season. That swim put her two-and-a-half ahead of Fishers sophomore Emily Wolf, the #2 seed.
Shackell is chasing a fourth-straight state championship in the 100 fly, though this is the first season in which she’s swimming only one individual event.
Year-by-Year Alex Shackell Individual State Results
- Freshman
- 100 fly – 1st – 51.71
- 50 free – 2nd – 22.48
- Sophomore
- 100 fly – 1st – 50.89
- 50 free – 1st – 21.93
- Junior
- 100 fly – 1st – 50.25
- 100 back – 1st – 51.63
No girl in state history has ever four-peated in that event, though several have won three-peats. Besides Shackell, the most recent was Stanford associate head coach Katie Robinson, who did so for South Dearborn High from 2001-2003.
Shackell leads an otherwise-young Carmel core that is likely to continue this state title streak for years into the future. For example, she split 22.55 on the butterfly leg of the 200 medley relay, where she was joined by freshman Ellie Clarke (back 25.57), junior Lucy Enoch (breast – 28.74), and sophomore Faith Gorey (22.98). Clarke had the #2 backstroke split, Enoch had the #3 breaststroke split, and Gorey had the #2 freestyle split of the entire field, along with Shackell’s easily-best-in-class butterfly split (that actually outpaced all of the freestylers).
That team went 1:39.84, three seconds ahead of any other medley relay, and still has some changes to make for finals – like adding Molly Sweeney to the breaststroke leg.
Carmel also led the 200 free relay in 1:32.19, which included the sophomore Gorey (23.28), freshman Alexandria Clark (23.80), junior Molly Sweeney (23.24), and Shackell’s 21.87 anchor.
Shackell was actually outsplit in that race by Wawasee senior Julie Mishler, who finished her team’s 200 free relay in 21.64.
Mishler took two top seeds of her own in prelims, breaking a State Record in the process. She was 21.74 in the 50 free, .02 seconds away from Lillian Christianson’s 21.72 done last season; and swam 47.88 in the 100 free to break Kristina Paegle’s 2022 State Record of 48.00.
Shackell’s prelims finished as part of a more-veteran 400 free relay that touched in 3:24.73, but that should be faster in finals. That group included senior Lynsey Bowen (51.68), senior Alexandra Ward (52.20), freshman Clark (51.92), and Shackell (48.93).
While Carmel did the work they needed to do in order to secure another title, a lot of their swimmers have plenty of room to drop in finals. Bowen took the top seed in the 200 free in 1:48.04, though a pair of 1:48-mids from Catie Brenneman and Liliana Ratzlaff make it a battle.
Bowen, interestingly, swam the 100 fly, qualifying for the B Final, as her other individual event, and not the 500 free where she’s the defending champion and State Record holder in a time of 4:40.74. Fishers’ Emily Wolf instead is the top qualifier in that race in 4:47.72 with a pair of Carmel swimmers close behind.
Junior Molly Sweeney, a Tennessee commit, is the top seed in the 200 IM in 1:59.71, seeking a third-straight title in that race. She still holds the state record in 1:55.88 from her freshman season and won again last year, albeit half-a-second slower.
She is also the defending champion in the 100 breaststroke, but cruised through prelims in 1:01.14 to take the 2nd seed behind Valparaiso’s Madeline Moreth (1:00.96). Moreth, a junior, is committed to Florida and has also been better than she was in heats.
The freshman Clarke, after her great medley relay leg, became the top qualifier in the 100 back in 54.42, a second ahead of Carroll sophomore Kate Fetters and 1.2 ahead of Munster freshman Lilly King.
- Fun fact: if Carmel wins 8 titles in finals, that will give them 200 in state-meet history. No other school enters the session with more than 20.
Clarke was 53.6 in March of last spring, before she was eligible for high school competition.
Diving finals kick off Saturday at 9AM Eastern, while swimming finals kickoff at 1PM Eastern and will be live-recapped on SwimSwam.
Are Christmas cards going extinct?
Fewer Christmas cards are being sent these days — a 2024 poll found 6 in 10 adults received fewer, and 3 in 10 planned to skip sending them altogether. Gen Z may be moving away from the tradition, but many still keep cards as sentimental keepsakes.
LAFAYETTE, IN — Hopes for a white Christmas are fading quickly in Indiana.
“I know earlier in the month we were thinking we might have a higher chance of a white Christmas,” National Weather Service meteorologist Cody Moore said, “but unfortunately, I have some bad news for you. A lot of long-range guidance has been consistent showing a pattern on Christmas Day featuring much warmer than normal temperatures for the region and the chance for some rainfall.
“It does look like we’ll be above average, temperatures at least in the 40s, maybe 50s,” Moore said on Wednesday, just three days after subzero temperatures pummeled the area.
With still eight days until Christmas, the forecasts closer to Dec. 25 might bump the expected high temps up even into the 60s, Moore said.
Normal temperatures this time of year for Lafayette are 36 for a high and 22 for a low.
“It looks like you might be able to keep your heavy winter jackets in the closet for now,” Moore said.
How will a Christmas with temperatures in the 40s, 50s or even 60s compare to Christmases past?
In 1982, Lafayette’s record-warm Christmas was 64 degrees. Its record cold temperature was 12 below zero in 2000.
So now that the dreams of a white Christmas appear dashed, what about January or February?
The Climate Prediction Center published a three-month forecast in November, and an update is expected in the next couple of days.
But last month, center’s forecast for January, February and March was for Hoosiers to have an equal chance of above and/or below average temperatures.
“We’ll see how that translates with the storm track,” Moore said.
The Climate Prediction Center forecasts warmer than normal temperatures in the southern United States and below normal temperatures in the Northern Plains.
“That puts the storm track right through Indiana, which makes sense because the Climate Prediction Center has Indiana as a bullseye for a pattern favoring above-normal precipitation,” Moore said. Temperatures will decide whether that precipitation falls as rain or snow — or ice or freezing rain.
Reach Ron Wilkins at rwilkins@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @RonWilkins2.
Former UConn forward, NBC Sports broadcaster Donny Marshall knows a thing or two about talented UConn guards.
The former Husky played for legendary coach Jim Calhoun and was teammates with the fifth pick in the 1996 NBA Draft, 10-time NBA All-Star Ray Allen. Watching UConn play against Butler on Tuesday night, Marshall said he sees a lot of Allen in reigning Indiana Mr. Basketball Braylon Mullins.
Mullins made the second start of his career against the Bulldogs. The former Greenfield-Central star missed UConn’s first six games of the regular season with an injury, but the 6-foot-6 guard is quickly coming into his own and showing why he’s a projected lottery pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.
Against Butler, Mullins showed off his sweet jump shot, going 2 for 5 from 3-point range. He finished with 12 points, three rebounds, two assists, two blocks and one steal.
“He’s a scorer,” Butler coach Thad Matta said of Mullins. “He’s got a scorer’s mentality. He gets his shot off quick. They move him around and create some angles for him. Obviously, he’s a heck of a player.”
Mullins did most of his damage in the first half, scoring eight of his 12 points before halftime. The former five-star recruit was the highest-ranked player in UConn’s 2025 class. Butler’s top-ranked recruit, Azavier “Stink” Robinson isn’t the NBA prospect Mullins is, but he held his own after a shaky start to the game.
Robinson has been thrust into the starting lineup with starter Jalen Jackson out for the season with an ankle injury. Robinson looked out of sorts at times in the first half, going scoreless with two assists and a turnover. In the second half, Matta moved him off the ball, giving him catch-and-shoot looks, and opportunities to drive to the basket without worrying about running the offense.
The former Lawrence North star responded with one of the better halves of his career, scoring 10 points on 3 for 6 shooting, including 2 for 5 from 3 to go along with two rebounds, one assist, one steal and one turnover.
Facing a veteran team like UConn, nothing comes easy. UConn’s guards harass ball handlers and getting into an offensive set is not easy. This time last year, Robinson was still in high school and, on most nights, the most athletic player on the court. Playing a UConn team where the goal is a national championship, Robinson was forced to grow, and he did not back down from the challenge in the second half.
“He’s coming along,” Matta said of Robinson. “That’s the first Big East road game of his career against maybe the best team in the country. It tells you how tough he is. He’s resilient. He keeps going.”
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