2018 INDIANA HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS’ SWIMMING STATE CHAMPIONSHIP MEET
- February 9th-10th, 2018
- Indiana University Natatorium, IUPUI, Indianapolis, Indiana
- 25 yard, invite format, prelims/finals
- Prelims Recap
- Live Results
The dominant Carmel High School girls’ swim team came away from Saturday’s state finals with their 32nd-consecutive Indiana State Championship. The Carmel girls have won every state title dating back to 1987 – a tradition that spans 5 different coaches, including Chris Plumb, who has led the charge for the last 12 of those titles.
Carmel scored 363 points, which left them 148 ahead of runners-up Northridge, showing that the margins, while still huge, are narrowing. That’s Carmel’s lowest point total since their 2012 title, and their smallest margin of victory since Plumb’s 2nd season in charge, the 2008 season.
In spite of the diminutive statistics – the margin was still a crushing one. Carmel had the depth to be able to qualify relays for A-finals on Friday without some of their star swimmers participating, and on Saturday, those subs carried them to wins in the 200 medley and 400 free relays, and a runner-up finish in the 200 free relay.
The group of Grace Pangburn (26.41), Grace Estabrook (29.57), Trude Rothrock (24.12), and Kelly Pash (22.12) combined for a 1:42.31. The Carmel relay had the fastest splits on both the fly and free legs to claw their way back from a 5th-place position at the halfway mark.
Other notable splits included a 25.91 backstroke split from Zionsville’s Tessa Wrightson and a 27.10 breaststroke split from Yorktown junior Emily Weiss in the B Final.
That wasn’t Weiss’ only fireworks of the day. In the individual 100 breaststroke, she swam 58.40 to win by three-and-a-half seconds.That broke her own State Record of 59.25 set in prelims, as well as the National High School Record in the event (read more here). The old public and overall high school records were set by Lindsey Horejsi (now Kozelsky) in 2015 with a 58.56.
The rest of the day was all-Carmel, though. In Weiss’ other individual event, Carmel senior Trude Rothrock out-battled her 1:58.28-1:58.50. Rothrock had a second-and-a-half margin after the fly leg, which Weiss turned into a 1.2 second lead for herself. Rothrock wasn’t deterred, though. Her breaststroke leg was enough to keep her in contact, and she ran down Weiss with a 27.74 freestyle split to win.
Rothrock also won the 100 fly in 53.12 – within 2 tenths of her personal best. Ruthrock came away with 4 wins in 4 events on Saturday – she was on the 200 medley and 400 free relays as well.
Her Carmel teammate Kelly Pash can make the same claim. She won the 200 free (1:45.50), 100 free (48.59), and was on both relays with Rothrock.
In total, Carmel won 7 out of 12 events on the day, bringing their all-time total to 152 event titles. No other school has more than 20.
Other Event Winners:
- Bloomington South’s Julia Wolf won the girls’ 50 free in 23.11. That’s the 2nd-straight year in which a Bloomington South swimmer has won this race – last year, it was Grace Haskett, who has since graduated. This breaks a run of 5-straight years with a sub-23 second winning time in this event.
- Munster’s Kay Foley added almost 2 seconds from her prelim time, but was still easily the class of the 500 free final with a 4:49.87. Her best coming into the meet was a 4:57.15, and she cut 9 seconds off her best at this meet in total.
- Northridge senior Sara Troyer won the 1-meter diving by jumping over the 500 point barrier – with a final score of 507.65. That’s the 2nd swimming-and-diving event title in school history, following Brittney Walters, who won the 500 free in 2013 from lane 8.
- Not long after, Northridge got their 3rd title when the team of Elsa Fretz, Kenzie Weber, Jenna Nethercutt, and Lauren Miller won the 200 free relay in 1:34.07. Fretz had the fastest 50 free of the day with her 22.95 leadoff (she was runner-up in the 200 free in 1:47.52 and 100 free in 49.64 individually). That Northridge relay only graduates their anchor Lauren Miller, who split 23.05, and have at least 2 more years from each of the other 3 legs.
- Zionsville’s Tessa Wrightson, after her meet-best medley relay leadoff, won the girls’ 100 back in 54.02. That makes Zionsville’s 5th event title overall and 1st in the 100 backstroke.
Team Standings
Top 5:
- Camrel – 363
- Northridge – 215
- Hamilton Southeastern – 165
- Franklin Community – 163
- Fishers – 155
