Carmel High School hosted the 2024 Holiday Invitational at its new pool on Friday, December 27. The Greyhounds swept the meet, with the girls and boys—both defending Indiana High School state champions—winning. The girls team is seeking its 39th straight title this season and beat Upper Arlington, Carroll Fort Wayne, Zionsville, and Homestead in the team’s second competition of the season. The boys beat the same schools and the boys’ only school, St. Charles Preparatory.
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In addition to the high school meet, Aaron Shackell recently returned to the club after spending the first term at the University of Texas, time trialed the 200 freestyle. He swam 1:34.84, which is his fastest time of the season.
Girls’ Recap
The Greyhound girls own the record for the longest high school state championship streak in any sport. So, it was unsurprising to see them take the win dominantly, winning all but two events.
Olympic gold medallist Alex Shackell—recently returned from the 2024 Short Course World Championships—was a huge factor in the team’s win, touching first in her two individual events and contributing to two relay wins. Shackell won the 200 freestyle by over five seconds, touching in 1:44.24 as she and senior Lexie Ward went 1-2 in the race. Then, she took on the 100 backstroke. She’s the defending IHSAA state champion in the event and posted a 53.23 in her first effort in the event this high school season.
Shackell also factored in the team’s winning 200 and 400 freestyle relays. She, Faith Gorey, Mollie Sweeney, and Ellie Clarke combined for a 1:31.92 to win the 200 freestyle relay. Then, Shackell led off the 400 freestyle relay in 48.91 to end her day. Maryn Sims (53.46), Addy Czarnecki (51.96), and Ward (51.43) followed Shackell, and the quartet took first in 3:25.76.
Ward and Clarke earned individual event wins for the Greyhounds, as did Molly Sweeney. Sweeney, a junior verbally committed to Tennessee, was the other female double-event winner as she took first in the 100 butterfly (53.42) and 100 breaststroke (1:02.60). She recently finished third in the 100 butterfly at the Winter Junior Championships — East, swimming a lifetime best 52.10. She also took fourth at the championships in the 100 breaststroke with a season-best 1:00.80.
Ward is headed to UNC-Chapel Hill next fall and picked up the win in the 500 freestyle. She touched in 4:50.47, leading a 1-2-3 finish for Carmel ahead of senior Kayla Barr (4:54.00) and junior Sabrina Ledwith (4:59.00).
The freshman Clarke won the 200 IM with a lifetime best 2:01.04, touching well over a second ahead of her teammate Gorey. Like many of the swimmers at this meet, Clarke had a successful showing at the Winter Junior Championships — East; she took third in the 500 freestyle, sixth in the 200 fly, and seventh in the 200 backstroke. However, the 200 IM was not one of the events she raced in Greensboro. Her time today would’ve qualified for the ‘C’ final.
Upper Arlington’s Hayden Hollingsworth and Zionsville’s Annabelle Swiney were the two non-Carmel girls to record event wins on the day. Hollingsworth, a Georgia commit, won the 50 freestyle with a 23.45; Upper Arlington went 1-3 in the race as sophomore Marin Berg touched in 23.97 for third.
Carmel didn’t win either sprint freestyle event, as Swiney got the job done in the 100 freestyle. She was out in 24.92, then split 26.48 to extend her lead on the second 50 yards, winning in 51.40. The top four swimmers—Swiney, Addy Czarnecki, Maris Williams, and Berg—were all sub-52 seconds.
Boys’ Recap
The event wins were more evenly distributed on the boys’ side of the meet. Carmel won the first two events, as 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 won the 200 freestyle in 1:39.07.
Allen was about a half-second off the lifetime best. He swam at Winter Juniors to triumph over a tight 200 freestyle race. The top three swimmers were all under 1:40 as Carrol Fort Wayne’s Mason Crews was second in 1:39.66, getting his hand on the wall ahead of Carmel’s Ethan Zhang (1:39.77). Later, Allen added a second event win in the 500 freestyle, swimming 4:27.80 to again narrowly beat Crews, a Grand Valley State commit, who clocked 4:28.17.
St. Charles Prep’s Austin Carpenter stopped Carmel’s momentum by winning the 200 IM. Carpenter held off a late surge from Homestead’s Hayden Lynam to win; Lynam split 25.61 on the freestyle leg but ran out of room to chase down the Texas class of 2026 commit. Carpenter clocked 1:48.73 for the win, nearing his lifetime best (1:48.52). Lynam earned second in 1:48.95, resetting the lifetime best (1:49.10) he clocked two weeks ago at Winter Juniors.
Carpenter doubled up on individual event wins later in the meet, swimming 54.20 to win the 100 breaststroke ahead of a 2-3 Carmel finish from Zheng (56.08) and Gorey (57.40). Finally, he helped St. Charles win the 400 freestyle relay, leading off in 44.07 as he, Jake Lloyd, Caleb Moore, and Alex Wu won in 3:01.92.
The junior Lloyd swept the sprint freestyle events at the meet. He took a hundredth off his lifetime best to win the 50 freestyle, swimming a 20.27 to beat Andrew Shackell by three hundredths. He was back on the blocks after the break for the 100 freestyle, clocking 44.98—just off his 44.85 lifetime best from this month’s Winter Juniors.
Wyatt Julian was the third individual event winner for St. Charles, taking first in the 100 backstroke with a 50.28 ahead of another 2-3 finish from Carmel. Corey Han placed second in 50.86, while Kopp finished third with 50.93.
Carmel’s depth proved to be the deciding factor on the day, but in addition to its opening event wins, Andrew Shackell provided another win in the 100 butterfly. Another Texas commit, Shackell, clocked 47.77 to win. At Winter Juniors, he posted a lifetime best of 47.04. Shackell also helped Carmel win the 200 freestyle relay, as he (20.73), Allen (20.84), Carter Hadley (20.90), and Gorey (20.12) won in 1:22.59.
Alex and Aaron are going to crush it in Charlottesville.
Alex, yes. After what Aaron said about Cal, I’d be surprised if he steps foot on UVA’s campus.
What did he end up saying about Cal?
Bro what high school had two 50m pools 😭
It’s either a school in Clovis or Irvine Ca that has 2 outdoor 50m pools plus another 25 yard pool/play pool that’s outside. Sometimes National level meets are hosted there.
I think Stanford has 2 50m pools too. Auburn has an indoor and outdoor 50m pool. I’m sure there are others. These are just the ones that I’ve been to. I realize these are not HS teams. I think it’s pretty rare that any school has multiple 50m pools.
Clovis West
It’s Clovis North
Texas commit Austin Carpenter and Texas A&M commit Jake Lloyd are shining teammates
Has to be the only high school two indoor 50m pools
pool records for all of the winners!
Personally I’m giving this win to the SC boys what a spectacular small group