When you think of high school swimming in Indiana, your first thought has to be the Carmel High School girl’s team. With 28 consecutive state championships, they are one of the most successful teams in our nations history. Last year, the Carmel girls made history by breaking 7 of 11 state records at the IHSAA State Championships and they became the first women’s team in history to break all three National relay records in one meet. Next weekend, they will be going for their 29th consecutive state title, which according to the Indy Star, would tie the high school record for most consecutive state titles for all sports, all states.
In Indiana, there are only three ways to be invited to the IHSAA State Championship meet.
- If you win an event at one of the 20 sectional championship meets, you will be entered to swim that event at the state championships.
- If you swim faster than the state cut time during sectional finals, you will be entered to swim that event at the state championships.
- And finally, if 32 swimmers are not entered in an event at the state championships after inviting all the swimmers that met the first two standards, then the next fastest swimmers will be invited until 32 swimmers are entered in that event at the state championship meet.
All 20 girl’s sectional meets finished up yesterday afternoon. Per IHSAA rules, teams may enter up to three swimmers in each individual event and one relay team for each of the relays. Carmel High School had a very impressive showing yesterday, winning every relay and sweeping every individual event with a 1-2-3 finish at their sectional championship meet.
Amy Bilquist and Claire Adams led the Greyhounds to their sectional blowout with two individual victories each. Bilquist was 22.72 to win the 50 freestyle and 49.65 to win the 100 freestyle. Adams won the 200 freestyle with her time of 1:50.27 and the 100 backstroke with an impressive 53.53.
Outside of the Carmel sectional, several other swimmers posted impressive times to secure their trip to the state championship meet. Lilly King was the only swimmer to break 2 minutes in the 200 IM and just missed breaking 1 minute in the 100 breaststroke at 1:00.33. Aly Tetzloff posted a 53.48 to win the 100 butterfly at her sectional championship meet. Lauryn Parrish also had a big swim, touching the wall at 1:47.64 to win the 200 freestyle at her meet.
Although Carmel’s win and depth at sectionals was impressive, the real competition will come next week at the state championships. They will have to compete against a lot of talent and depth from around the state. Fishers High School and Crown Point High School will be two of the biggest competitors in the team competition this year. Fishers is led by Lauren Edelman and Lauryn Parrish, while Crown Point is lead by Hannah Kukurugya and Aly Tetzloff.
This past summer, three Indiana high school swimmers were on a Jr World Record breaking relay at the Jr Pan Pacific Championships. Amy Bilquist, Lilly King, and Hannah Kukurugya were the first three legs of the record breaking 400 medley relay. All three swimmers will be competing next weekend at the state championships. Some of the big names to watch next weekend will be (in no particular order):
- Lilly King, F.J. Reitz HS – 200 IM, 100 breaststroke
- Hannah Kukurugya, Crown Point HS – 200 freestyle, 500 freestyle
- Amy Bilquist, Carmel HS – 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle
- Grace Haskett, Columbus North HS – 50 freestyle, 100 backstroke
- Claire Adams, Carmel HS – 200 freestyle, 100 backstroke
- Vanessa Krause, Chesterton HS – 50 freestyle, 100 butterfly
- Lauryn Parrish, Fishers HS – 200 freestyle, 100 freestyle
- Lauren Edelman, Fishers HS – 200 IM, 100 breaststroke
- Aly Tetzloff, Crown Point HS – 200 IM, 100 butterfly
- Emily Meckstroth, Penn HS – 200 freestyle, 500 freestyle
- Bri Robinson, Wawasee HS – 100 butterfly, 100 backstroke
- Veronica Burchill, Carmel HS – 100 butterfly, all relays
- Kylie Mihok, Zionsville HS – 200 freestyle, 100 freestyle
- Marah Bieger, Coumbus North HS – 200 IM, 100 breaststroke
- Robyn Clevenger, Hamilton Southeastern HS – 50 freestyle, 100 butterfly
Top times from around the state:
200 Medley Relay – 1) Columbus North HS, 1:43.15. 2) Carmel HS, 1:43.22.
200 Freestyle – 1) Lauryn Parrish, Fishers HS, 1:47.64. 2) Hannah Kukurugya, Crown Point HS, 1:47.77.
200 IM – 1) Lilly King, F.J. Reitz HS, 1:59.79. 2) Lauren Edelman, Fishers HS, 2:00.00.
50 Freestyle – 1) Amy Bilquist, Carmel HS, 22.72. 2) Robyn Clevenger, Hamilton Southeastern HS, 23.00.
100 Butterfly – 1) Aly Tetzloff, Crown Point HS, 53.48. 2) Christine Jensen, Castle HS, 54.04.
100 Freestyle – 1) Amy Bilquist, Carmel HS, 49.65. 2) Lauryn Parrish, Fishers HS, 50.99.
500 Freestyle – 1) Hannah Kukurugya, Crown Point HS, 4:50.03. 2) Abbagayle Schneider, Fishers HS, 4:51.25
200 Freestyle Relay – 1) Crown Point HS, 1:34.27. 2) Hamilton Southeastern HS, 1:34.52.
100 Backstroke – 1) Claire Adams, Carmel HS, 53.53. 2) Grace Haskett, Columbus North HS, 54.20.
100 Breaststroke – 1) Lilly King, F.J. Reitz HS, 1:00.33. 2) Lauren Edelman, Fishers HS, 1:03.59.
400 Freestyle Relay – 1) Hamilton Southeastern HS, 3:26.42. 2) Carmel HS, 3:26.62.
The girl’s state meet will be hosted at the IUPUI Natatorium in Indianapolis. Prelims will begin on Friday, Feb. 13th at 6:00pm and finals will be the following day, Saturday the 14th, at 1:00pm. A live feed will be available for the finals session at IHSAAtv.org.
Psych sheets for the state championship meet were not available at the time of publication. We will post a link to them when they are released by the IHSAA.
UPDATE:
Click here to view the Psych Sheets for the 2015 Girl’s Indiana High School State Championships.
Click here to view the Heat Sheets for the 2015 Girl’s Indiana High School State Championships.
Better link for the live webcast
http://www.ihsaatv.org/
courtesy of Amy Bilquist!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7NIDr2bv1M
… And the Fishers coach used to be a Carmel coach. Throw in the Fastrichs who coach Hershey in PA; lots of fast swimming connected to one Indiana HS/club.
And, barring some catastrophic collapse, they will get the championship again next week. There are other schools that have top swimmers, but it is the unrelenting depth of the team in every event that makes this almost a foregone conclusion.
By the seeds, Carmel only has one swimmer not scoring points, and the closest competition, Fishers, stays with Carmel in the early events but ends up over 100 points behind.
And something you can add to the article, in addition to all swimmers qualifying, all of the swimmers automatically qualified by being below the state standard. Absolutely incredible.
Lilly King swims for F.J. Reitz High School, not Reitz Memorial (it’s a public school vs private school thing).
Thanks for letting us know. It should be correct now.