Carmel Excessive College hosted the 2024 Vacation Invitational at its new pool on Friday, December 27. The Greyhounds swept the meet, with the women and boys—each defending Indiana Excessive College state champions—successful. The women workforce is in search of its thirty ninth straight title this season and beat Higher Arlington, Carroll Fort Wayne, Zionsville, and Homestead within the workforce’s second competitors of the season. The boys beat the identical faculties and the boys’ solely faculty, St. Charles Preparatory.
Along with the highschool meet, Aaron Shackell just lately returned to the membership after spending the primary time period on the College of Texas, time trialed the 200 freestyle. He swam 1:34.84, which is his quickest time of the season.
Women’ Recap
The Greyhound women personal the file for the longest highschool state championship streak in any sport. So, it was unsurprising to see them take the win dominantly, successful all however two occasions.
Olympic gold medallist Alex Shackell—just lately returned from the 2024 Brief Course World Championships—was an enormous issue within the workforce’s win, touching first in her two particular person occasions and contributing to 2 relay wins. Shackell received the 200 freestyle by over 5 seconds, touching in 1:44.24 as she and senior Lexie Ward went 1-2 within the race. Then, she took on the 100 backstroke. She’s the defending IHSAA state champion within the occasion and posted a 53.23 in her first effort within the occasion this highschool season.
Shackell additionally factored within the workforce’s successful 200 and 400 freestyle relays. She, Religion Gorey, Mollie Sweeney, and Ellie Clarke mixed for a 1:31.92 to win the 200 freestyle relay. Then, Shackell led off the 400 freestyle relay in 48.91 to finish her day. Maryn Sims (53.46), Addy Czarnecki (51.96), and Ward (51.43) adopted Shackell, and the quartet took first in 3:25.76.
Ward and Clarke earned particular person occasion wins for the Greyhounds, as did Molly Sweeney. Sweeney, a junior verbally dedicated to Tennessee, was the opposite feminine double-event winner as she took first within the 100 butterfly (53.42) and 100 breaststroke (1:02.60). She just lately completed third within the 100 butterfly on the Winter Junior Championships — East, swimming a lifetime greatest 52.10. She additionally took fourth on the championships within the 100 breaststroke with a season-best 1:00.80.
Ward is headed to UNC-Chapel Hill subsequent fall and picked up the win within the 500 freestyle. She touched in 4:50.47, main a 1-2-3 end for Carmel forward of senior Kayla Barr (4:54.00) and junior Sabrina Ledwith (4:59.00).
The freshman Clarke received the 200 IM with a lifetime greatest 2:01.04, touching effectively over a second forward of her teammate Gorey. Like most of the swimmers at this meet, Clarke had a profitable exhibiting on the Winter Junior Championships — East; she took third within the 500 freestyle, sixth within the 200 fly, and seventh within the 200 backstroke. Nevertheless, the 200 IM was not one of many occasions she raced in Greensboro. Her time at this time would’ve certified for the ‘C’ last.
Higher Arlington’s Hayden Hollingsworth and Zionsville’s Annabelle Swiney had been the 2 non-Carmel women to file occasion wins on the day. Hollingsworth, a Georgia commit, received the 50 freestyle with a 23.45; Higher Arlington went 1-3 within the race as sophomore Marin Berg touched in 23.97 for third.
Carmel didn’t win both dash freestyle occasion, as Swiney obtained the job performed within the 100 freestyle. She was out in 24.92, then cut up 26.48 to increase her lead on the second 50 yards, successful in 51.40. The highest 4 swimmers—Swiney, Addy Czarnecki, Maris Williams, and Berg—had been all sub-52 seconds.
Boys’ Recap
The occasion wins had been extra evenly distributed on the boys’ aspect of the meet. Carmel received the primary two occasions, because the quartet of Anderson Kopp, Yi Zheng, Andrew Shackell, and Michael Gorey took the 200 medley relay in 1:29.27, and sophomore Trent Allen received the 200 freestyle in 1:39.07.
Allen was a few half-second off the lifetime greatest. He swam at Winter Juniors to conquer a decent 200 freestyle race. The highest three swimmers had been all below 1:40 as Carrol Fort Wayne’s Mason Crews was second in 1:39.66, getting his hand on the wall forward of Carmel’s Ethan Zhang (1:39.77). Later, Allen added a second occasion win within the 500 freestyle, swimming 4:27.80 to once more narrowly beat Crews, a Grand Valley State commit, who clocked 4:28.17.
St. Charles Prep’s Austin Carpenter stopped Carmel’s momentum by successful the 200 IM. Carpenter held off a late surge from Homestead’s Hayden Lynam to win; Lynam cut up 25.61 on the freestyle leg however ran out of room to chase down the Texas class of 2026 commit. Carpenter clocked 1:48.73 for the win, nearing his lifetime greatest (1:48.52). Lynam earned second in 1:48.95, resetting the lifetime greatest (1:49.10) he clocked two weeks in the past at Winter Juniors.
Carpenter doubled up on particular person occasion wins later within the meet, swimming 54.20 to win the 100 breaststroke forward of a 2-3 Carmel end from Zheng (56.08) and Gorey (57.40). Lastly, he helped St. Charles win the 400 freestyle relay, main off in 44.07 as he, Jake Lloyd, Caleb Moore, and Alex Wu received in 3:01.92.
The junior Lloyd swept the dash freestyle occasions on the meet. He took a hundredth off his lifetime greatest to win the 50 freestyle, swimming a 20.27 to beat Andrew Shackell by three hundredths. He was again on the blocks after the break for the 100 freestyle, clocking 44.98—simply off his 44.85 lifetime greatest from this month’s Winter Juniors.
Wyatt Julian was the third particular person occasion winner for St. Charles, taking first within the 100 backstroke with a 50.28 forward of one other 2-3 end from Carmel. Corey Han positioned second in 50.86, whereas Kopp completed third with 50.93.
Carmel’s depth proved to be the deciding issue on the day, however along with its opening occasion wins, Andrew Shackell supplied one other win within the 100 butterfly. One other Texas commit, Shackell, clocked 47.77 to win. At Winter Juniors, he posted a lifetime better of 47.04. Shackell additionally helped Carmel win the 200 freestyle relay, as he (20.73), Allen (20.84), Carter Hadley (20.90), and Gorey (20.12) received in 1:22.59.
