2026 IHSAA Girls Swimming & Diving State Championships
- Prelims: Friday, Feb. 13, 2026
- Finals: Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026
- IUPUI Natatorium, Indianapolis, IN
- SCY (25 yards)
- Meet Page
- Psych Sheet
- Prelims Heat Sheet
- Results on Meet Mobile: “2026 Girls High School State Championships” (or search “Indiana”)
The girls from Carmel, Indiana laid the groundwork for their 40th straight Indiana High School State Championship on Friday. Facing their biggest challenge in years, the Greyhounds’ depth shined through in prelims.
That was most obvious in races like the 200 IM, where sophomore Ellie Clarke (1:59.36), sophomore Leah Debosch (2:00.39), and senior Lucy Enoch (2:03.36) gave them three in the A-Final.
SwimSwam’s Unofficial Prelims Scoring, Top 4 Contenders (Swimming Only)
Note: this is swimming only, but only Carmel has divers entered among these top 4 teams
- Carmel – 313
- Fishers – 235
- Carroll – 227
- Zionsville – 208
That was one of 5 events where Carmel held the top seed after day 1 of the meet. In the 200 medley relay, Debosch, Molly Sweeney, Ellie Clarke, and Sophia Floyd combined for a 1:40.68.
Sweeney, a Tennessee commit and the biggest name on a team that doesn’t have as many this season as they have in the past, was the star of the meet’s first day for Carmel. She took the top seed in both the 100 fly (52.72), which is a bit of an outside event for her, and the 100 breast (59.53), which is a primary event. That 100 breast time missed her best by .06 seconds.
The three-time defending State Champion in the 200 IM made a switch to the 100 fly this year. While she would have been a heavy favorite to win the 200 IM event, the Greyhounds are much deeper in that event. They have no other scorers in the 100 fly.
In the 100 back, sophomore Ellie Clarke took the top seed in 53.35, leading the field by over a second. Her fellow sophomore Lilly King from Munster High dropped 1.3 seconds to qualify 2nd in 54.38.
The teams chasing them, Carroll High School and Fishers High School, had good days as well and will be locked in a good battle for 2nd.
For Fishers, a pair of freshman paint a bright future for the program. Rookie Audrey Wolf dropped time to make a pair of A Finals in the 50 free (23.48) and 100 fly (54.22). Her classmate Ashlyn Hayes made a pair of A Finals, finishing 4th in heats of the 200 free (1:49.29) and 6th in the 100 free (51.09).
Junior Emily Wolf, the older sister of Audrey, qualified 1st in the 200 free in 1:45.72. Amid last week’s Sectionals meet and Friday’s prelims, she has dropped about 2.7 seconds off her best time in that event.
An NC State commit, she’s also the top seed in the 500 free, where she touched in 4:43.23.
Fishers also wrapped the session with the top seed in the 400 free relay over Carmel, 3:24.52 to 3:26.25. That time for Fishers included a 49.26 split for the rangy Emily Wolf.
For the Carroll girls, the meet got off to a tough start when their 200 medley relay added time from Sectionals and finished 9th in heats, missing out on the chance at big A-Final points. A best-in-class sprint free group, though, pulled them back into the meet.
That included taking the top two seeds in the 50 free. Junior Maris Williams dipped under 23 seconds to take the top seed in 22.99. She swam three relays and only one individual event at last year’s meet.
Her fellow junior Kate Fetters, who finished tied for 2nd at last year’s meet, was 2nd-best in prelims in 23.06. She swam 22.85 at Sectionals last week.
Those two combined as part of the 2nd-seeded 200 free relay behind Zionsville’s quartet that finished in 1:35.45. Zionsville had nobody split under 23 seconds, but threw up a balanced relay to touch the wall first.
Finals start Saturday morning with diving prelims at 9AM Eastern and finals for swimming and diving kicking off at 1PM Eastern.
Before anyone complains about Carmel’s facilities and privileges that make state unfair, I’d like you to do a typical week of training that Carmel does. Not many other teams are willing to do 10 practices a week and create new limits everyday. The culture that is present there is unlike any other team I’ve ever seen and that is why we succeed. Not because of a pool or how big of a school we are, but because of our values.
40 in a row is impressive, but not like a particular coach or group of swimmers have accomplished something. More like a feat of social engineering to have one particular suburban high school that is so much nicer than all the others in the state that no other school can even hope to ever beat them. It’s really just kind of depressing.
For years, yes that was the truth. But more every surrounding school in the Hamilton County area and Indianapolis area has a school at the same level Westfield. The town directly next to Carmel has a school just as prevalent as caramel. Carmel has a very rich history and swimming athletes have moved there to train. Zionsville also another school right next-door has just as many things to offer as caramel along with one of the best coaches in the country.
Yes and this is all true as well….though ultimately Carmel’s sheer size as one school is difficult to overcome.
It honestly should probably be two schools.
Think of all the swimmers that would have an opportunity to swim at competitions like sectionals and state and other athletes that would have the chance to play other sports if Carmel would create a second high school. Much less kids academically would have more opportunities and would be less of a “number” only. Carmel simply won’t do it because it would dilute their sport dominance in the state. It’s been tried and is always shut down. Fishers created a second high school and that was the right decision for the students even thought it diluted HSE as a sports powerhouse.
Every high school has the same number of people in each event so why complain about the size of Carmel?
Lol you can’t possibly thing this is a good argument, right?
Before any complaints about Carmel’s facilities and privileges that make it unfair, anyone is welcome to do a typical week of training that Carmel does. Not many other teams are willing to do 10 practices a week and push themselves to the edge everyday. The culture that is present there is unlike any other team I’ve ever seen and that is why we succeed. Not because of a pool or how big of a school we are, but because of our values
Before anyone complains about Carmel’s facilities and privileges that make state unfair, I’d like you to do a typical week of training that Carmel does. Not many other teams are willing to do 10 practices a week and create new limits everyday. The culture that is present there is unlike any other team I’ve ever seen and that is why we succeed. Not because of a pool or how big of a school we are, but because of our values.
It’s really not that much nicer than some of the other ones. I mean, now with the second pool, yeah
getting some hate for this but I agree. same thing in south jersey where one public school has gone to states almost 20 years in a row now, because the town only funds one of their 3 schools and actively encourages kids to transfer if they’re good at sports. Lots of talent but they have a hard limit on playoffs unless their parents can afford a private school
Which school is this? I’m in Philly and love to know the local lore.
FYI, I think I got different scores without diving:
CAR – 313
FISH – 235
CAFW – 207
ZION – 193
HM! IDK where we varied. I wrote out each score in each event. If you want to compare notes, shoot me an email braden@SwimSwam.com.
(Or we could just wait a few hours and yeet it).