Carmel Boys Pick Up 9th-Straight Indiana High School Athletic Association Title

2023 IHSAA BOYS HIGH SCHOOL STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS

• February 24 – 25, 2023
• IU Natatorium at IUPUI Indianapolis
• Indianapolis, Indiana
• SCY
• Live Results

The Carmel boys got it done on day two of the 2023 IHSAA Championships, winning their 9th-straight title. Carmel scored the most points of any team at the meet with 363, which was more than 100 more than Zionsville’s second place 257. Carroll (Fort Wayne) took third in the team race with 150, narrowly defeating Fishers with 148.

Final Top Ten

1. Carmel – 363
2. Zionsville – 257
3. Carroll (Fort Wayne) – 150
4. Fishers – 148
5. North Central (Indpls.) – 130
6. South Bend Riley – 120
7. Homestead – 93
8. Penn – 86
9. Bloomington North – 84
10. Chesterton – 75.5

Carmel won three events at the meet as Aaron Shackell topped the field in the 200 and 500 freestyles and Sean Sullivan won the 100 freestyle. Shackell was a bit slower in the 200 freestyle final than he was during prelims. In prelims, he hit a 1:32.85 national high school record and followed that up in the finals with a 1:33.68. He won by almost five seconds, defeating the Zionsville duo of Walker Mattice (1:38.25) and Will Raches (1:38.31).

In the 500 freestyle, Shackell shaved some time off his 4:19.19 prelims performance when he swam a 4:15.35 to take gold. That was a new best time for Shackell, improving upon the 4:16.49 that he swam at the Speedo Winter Junior Championships.

Those two swims were his first-ever state titles in those events: last year, as a junior, he won the 100 fly, which he didn’t swim this year, and was runner-up in the 200 free.

Shackell is committed to swim at Cal next fall.

Sean Sullivan, the other Carmel champ, posted a 44.09 in the 100 freestyle to establish a new best time in the event and successfully defend his state title. The same two boys that went 2-3 in the 200 freestyle did the same thing here, in the opposite order. Will Raches hit a 44.23 for second place and teammate Walker Mattice was third in a 45.46.

Sullivan picked up another medal in the 50 freestyle by swimming a 20.52 for second place behind Matthew Klinge‘s 19.95. Klinge was 2-for-2 in his individual events when he touched first in the 100 butterfly (47.90).

Zionsville’s Will Modglin, like Shackell, broke a national high school record during prelims when he swam a 45.08 100 backstroke. He added time in the final with a 45.69 but still pulled out a win, touching ahead of BHSS’ David Kovacs (48.54) and Gannon Crosser of YORK (50.60). Modglin also broke a state record in the 200 IM when he swam a 1:43.74 for the gold medal, taking out his own mark of 1:44.10 in 2022.

That was one of two State Records that Modglin contributed to on Saturday. He also swam a 19.64 leadoff leg as part of Zionsville’s winning 200 free relay. Combined with Walker Mattice(20.63), Gabe Berry (20.33), and Will Raches (19.93), Zionsville swam 1:20.53. That took the state record away from a 2017 Carmel relay that swam 1:21.21.

Carmel won the other two relays on the day, both by significant margins. In the 200 medley relay, the team of Sean Sullivan, Brandon Malicki, Shackell, and Michael Gorey combined for a 1:27.83. While Modglin’s 20.91 backstroke split got Zionsville out to an early lead, Carmel had the faster split on every other leg of the race – including Shackell’s 20.46 fly split.

His was the fastest of the field, as was Gorey’s 20.31 freestyle split. The fastest breaststroke leg of the field, however, went to Fort Wayne Carroll’s Adam McCurdy in 23.72. No other swimmer split under 25 seconds, and for the Cincinnati commit, that split is already a full second better than what the Bearcats got on their medley relay this season.

McCurdy then went on to win the 100 breaststroke individually in 54.69, using a backhalf swim to run down Elkhart senior Lucas Byrd (54.84). That swim for McCurdy a half-second improvement on his personal best from an Indiana high school sectional meet, and in total he’s dropped almost three seconds this calendar year.

In the 1-meter diving event, junior Ethan Stewart led a Hamilton Heights 1-2 finish with a score of 512.15 points. That just-beat his teammate Nathan Cox.