Bray Smashes Nat’l Record, Carmel Wins IHSAA Title by Slimmest Margin

Avon’s Chandler Bray was on fire at last weekend’s IHSAA Championships in Indianapolis, IN, setting a new national high school record in the 100 breast and helping his school to a 3rd place trophy. Carmel, meanwhile, took the team title by a sole point over Zionsville. This was their 5th title in the last 7 years, and their 2nd straight.

Full results

Bray swam a 52.65 in the 100 breast prelims, splitting 24.90-27.75 to take the top seed by a long shot. He gained over a second in finals, but still won the event by well over a second. Bray also split a 23.95 breaststroke leg on Avon’s medley relay in prelims, then split a similar 24.11 split in finals to help them to a relay victory. The future Florida Gator clocked a 20.60 on Avon’s winning 200 free relay.

Swimming the 200 IM prior to the 100 breast, Bray swam a 1:48.33 in prelims and then a 1:49.70 in finals to finish 4th overall. Carmel junior Charles Vaughan swam a 1:48.13 in finals to take the event.

Vaughan was a key member of Carmel’s squad, which was locked in an incredibly tight battle with Zionsville going into the final few events. His 2nd place finish in the 100 breast (55.23) was huge for Carmel, as Zionsville junior Tyler Harmon had won the 100 back (48.87) just before.

Going into the 400 free relay, Carmel needed to score three more points than Zionsville just to finish in a tie, and four more points in order to beat them for the state championship. That meant not only beating them, but also having another team ALSO beat them.

Carmel got a big 45.98 lead-off from senior Troy Li, the 200 freestyle champion (1:38.59), and was anchored by a 45.28 from Vaughan which propelled them to a 3:05.50 finish for 2nd place ahead of Zionsville’s 4th place finish. Chesterton was the team that beat Zionsville for 3rd, helping Carmel take the state title. Carroll won the 400 free relay.

Team Scores

1. Carmel 216
2. Zionsville 215
3. Avon 192
4. Northridge 185
5. Carroll 174

The top five were actually all pretty bunched up in terms of team scores.

Zionsville sophomore Jack Franzman was impactful for his team, winning the 50 free (20.25) with a .27 drop from prelims to finals and then coming back to take the 100 free (44.93). He also threw down a 19.71 to anchor their 2nd place 200 medley relay. Franzman was even faster in the 200 free relay, leading off Zionsville’s 3rd place relay with a 20.13, inching closer and closer to a flat start 19.

Other event winners included Carroll senior Ryan Huizing in the 100 fly (he was 48.51, and also finished 2nd in the 50 free at 20.65) and Northridge junior Spencer Lehman in the 500 free (4:25.60). Lehman won by a landslide, the only swimmer under 4:32. He also touched 2nd in the 200 IM and helped Northridge to two top-5 relay finishes.

The top five teams collectively won every single individual and relay swimming event. Only in diving was this not the case, with Homestead senior Kevin Frebel scoring 613.35 points to take the victory on the boards. Homestead placed 8th overall.