To see all of the 2014 Swammy Award winners, presented by TYR, click here.
2014 Honoree: Carmel High School – Carmel, Indiana
During the school year that ran from September 2013 through May 2014, one school rose to the top, mowing down opponents and national records alike: Carmel High School in Carmel, Indiana.
The Carmel High girls’ swimming and diving team is not a newcomer to accolades, having won 28 consecutive Indiana state titles, but 2014 was a particularly incredible year for the Greyhounds. The swimmers, largely made up of members of Head Coach Chris Plumb’s Carmel Swim Club, rewrote nearly all the school records, a large chunk of the state’s records, and three national public school records.
Plumb, who is head coach of both Carmel High and Carmel Swim Club, qualified 27 swimmers and one diver for the state meet in February. The Greyhounds won the meet with 399 points, nearly double the total of their nearest competitor. Scoring for Carmel were: then-seniors Julianne Heyde, Hanna House, Katie Lemen, Laura Rokop, and Shelby Spitz; juniors Amy Bilquist, Alex Clarke, Haley Harris, Meaghan Mahoney, Peyton Mosbaugh, and Claudia Sherman; sophomores Claire Adams, Veronica Burchill, Katy Schlies, and Kendall Smith; and freshmen Sammie Burchill, Morgan Grout, Emma Nordin, and Caroline Schultz.
The Greyhounds didn’t just rule the waters in Indiana; they dominated the national landscape as well. Carmel broke all three national public school relay records. Two of their individual swimmers had two national top-ten times each: Amy Bilquist (50 free, 100 free) and Claire Adams (200 free, 100 back). Moreover, no one could match the Greyhounds’ depth; Carmel individual swimmers and relay teams placed in the top 100 in the nation 20 times. In addition to Bilquist and Adams, six more swimmers had top-100 swims: Veronica Burchill, Alex Clarke, Hanna House, Sammie Burchill, Haley Harris, and Kendall Smith.
Carmel High School State champions at 2014 IHSAA meet:
- 200 medley relay: House, Clarke, V Burchill, Bilquist – 1:40.83 State record, National Public School record
- 200 free: Adams – 1:46.95 State record
- 50 free: Bilquist – 22.17 (22.15 in prelims for the State record)
- 100 free: Bilquist – 48.93 State record
- 200 free relay: Bilquist, Adams, House, V Burchill – 1:31.37 State record, National Public School record
- 100 back: Adams – 52.97 State record
- 400 free relay: V Burchill, Lemen, Smith, Adams – 3:21.20 State record, National Public School record
Carmel High School school records in 2014:
- 200 medley relay: House, Clark, V Burchill, Bilquist – 1:40.83
- 200 free: Adams – 1:46.95
- 50 free: Bilquist – 22.15
- Diving (6): Rokop – 256.15
- 100 free: Bilquist – 48.93
- 200 free relay: Bilquist, Adams, House, V Burchill – 1:31.37
- 100 back: Adams – 52.97
- 100 breast: Clark – 1:02.71
- 400 free relay: V Burchill, Lemen, Smith, Adams – 3:21.20
- Diving (11): Rokop – 431.40
Honorable Mentions
In no particular order
- Crean Lutheran High School, Irvine, California – With all three relays finishing in the top-11 nationally and Ella Eastin (11) and Lindsey Engel (12) notching two top-10 times each, Crean Lutheran was one of the nation’s most successful high school programs. Even more so when you consider the size of the school; there were less than 700 students 9-12 in 2013-14. Nevertheless, Eastin, who holds the national independent school record in the 200 IM (1:55.15) posted the top time in the country with 1:56.54 and was tenth in the 100 breast (1:01.75), while Engel placed fourth in the 100 free (49.00) and ninth in the 50 (22.71). Along with Emily Eastin (10), Tianna Jorgenson (10) and Rachel Taylor (9), the pair finished the year third in the 200 medley and 400 free relays and 11th in the 200 free relay.
- Sacred Heart Academy, Louisville, Kentucky – Sacred Heart Academy’s top-ranked performances came not from one or two superstars but from a wider range of swimmers, and mostly underclassmen at that. Asia Sedt (10), Kennedy Lohman (10) and Leah Stevens (11) all had top-ten swims while Brooke Bauer (10) had a couple make the top 100. Seidt, Lohman, Victoria Horsman (11), and Bauer turned in the second-fastest medley relay (1:41.45) in the country, less than a second off Carmel’s record-breaking time. Seidt, Ashley LeClair (12), Stevens, and Bauer put up the seventh-fastest 400 free relay, while Molly O’Hara (10), LeClair, Shea Maloney (10), and Stevens were 22nd in the 200 free relay.
- Hershey High School, Hershey, Pennsylvania – Hershey lost the core of their program when Meaghan Raab and Madelyn Veith went off to college this fall. Raab had the second-fastest IM in the country and the seventh 100 back, and all three of Hershey’s relays landed in the top ten. Kaley Buchanan (9), Vivian Tafuto (11), Veith (12), and Raab (12) produced the second-fastest 400 free relay (3:21.34), just centimeters away from their own national record. Raab, Tafuto, Gabi Broschard (12), and Colette Robinson (10) finished the year sixth in the 200 medley relay, while Buchanan, Jenny Young (12), Robinson, and Veith were seventh in the 200 free relay. Tafuto, Veith, and Buchanan all posted top-100 times individually.
- Charlotte Catholic High School, Charlotte, North Carolina – Depth was the key to Charlotte Catholic’s success, with two top-ten relays, a top-20 relay, and a whole slew of individuals scoring in the top 100 in the country. Rebecca Postoll (11), Maria Sheridan (12), Lauren Rhodes (12), and Nora McCullagh (11) went 1:33.22 for the third-fastest 200 free relay. McCullagh, Elsa Welshofer (12), Postoll, and Rhodes combined for the fifth 400 free relay, while Nicole Emery (12), Sara Stranick (11), Welshofer and Sheridan were 18th in the medley relay. McCullagh, Emery, Welshofer, Postoll, Rhodes, and Stranick all contributed with individual top-100 swims.
- Oakton High School, Vienna, Virginia – Oakton’s was more of a quality-over-quantity year, with Janet Hu (12) finishing the year with four swims in the top ten nationally: 50 free (22.11, 2nd), 100 back (52.35, 2nd), 100 fly (52.46, 4th),and 200 IM (1:58.94, 7th). She wasn’t alone, though, as Megan Byrnes (10) came up with the fifth-fastest 500 free and made the top 100 in the 200 free as well. Laura Branton (11) registered a top-50 100 fly, and two of Oakton’s relays finished in the top 50: Branton, Kendall Lawhorn (12), Byrnes, and Hu in the 400 free and Hu, Jade Chen (9 ), Julia Capobianco (11), and Elise Bourdelais (10) in the medley.
- San Ramon Valley High School, Danville, California – Another school with a large number of contributors, San Ramon Valley was nevertheless led by breaststroker Heidi Poppe (12), whose 59.85 was the second-fastest in the country. SRV put together the fourth 200 free relay behind Poppe, Marina Smith (12), Alexa Fusari (9), and Cailey Steffens (11) and the ninth medley relay with Gianna Garcia (10), Poppe, Abigail Miller (10), and Steffens. Individually, Garcia, Kristin Schumann (11), Christina Chong (10), Claire Therien (10), Anastasia Henderson (11), and Abigail Miller (10) all joined Poppe with top-100 performances.