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.