Competitor Coach of the Month is a recurring SwimSwam feature shedding light on a U.S.-based coach who has risen above the competition. As with any item of recognition, Competitor Coach of the Month is a subjective exercise meant to highlight one coach whose work holds noteworthy context – perhaps a coach who was clearly in the limelight, or one whose work fell through the cracks a bit more among other stories. If your favorite coach wasn’t selected, feel free to respectfully recognize them in our comment section.
Coming up on two decades as the team’s head coach, Chris Plumb has consistently been producing elite results with his swimmers at Carmel Swim Club, and that was on full display at the U.S. Olympic Trials.
Plumb had eight swimmers competing at the most prestigious meet in the country, landing a pair of swimmers on the Olympic team.
Racing in front of his home-state crowd, Aaron Shackell brought the house down on Night 1 when he won the men’s 400 freestyle to become the first member of the U.S. Olympic (pool) swimming team, clocking a time of 3:45.46 to oust his previous best of 3:47.00 by over a second and a half.
Shackell, 19, left Cal this past season to realign with Plumb at Carmel in the lead-up to the Trials.
Two nights later, Shackell’s younger sister, 17-year-old Alex Shackell joined him on the Olympic team (though not official at the time) by placing 6th in the women’s 200 free, coming within 35 one-hundredths of her best time in 1:57.05.
She went on to add an individual event to her Paris schedule in the 200 fly, breaking the girls’ 17-18 National Age Group Record in the semis (2:06.10) before placing 2nd to Regan Smith in the final in 2:06.69.
Shackell also swam to a new PB in the 100 fly, cracking 57 seconds for the first time in the semis in 56.78 before scratching the final to focus on the 200 free.
Aaron Shackell also won a swim-off to earn a berth in the final of the men’s 200 free, producing his fastest swim of the meet with the pressure on (1:46.95) before ultimately placing 8th in the final.
The two Shackells were joined by Alex’s twin brother, Andrew Shackell, who qualified for the Trials in the men’s 200 free and placed 38th (1:50.10).
Also repping Carmel at Lucas Oil Stadium were Kayla Han, Lynsey Bowen, Ellie Clarke, Molly Sweeney and Gregg Enoch.
Han, 16, set a lifetime best of 4:08.21 in the final of the women’s 400 free, placing 4th, and she also narrowly missed a finals berth in the 400 IM (9th).
Enoch, 18, also impressed with a finals appearance in the men’s 400 IM, placing 7th, and he added personal bests in the 400 free and 200 IM.
In landing the two Shackell siblings on the Olympic team, Plumb was among the six coaches named assistants on the Team USA staff heading to Paris.
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Chris and his staff have done one of the hardest things to do in sport… not to be successful once or twice, but to consistently, year after year, put together one of (if not the) best programs in the country. My hat is off to Coach Plumb and his well deserved Olympic appointment.
This guy has to be a top 5 club coach in country
Ok…let’s list who you think are in the top 5!
Exactly. Plumb is arguably No. 1 for overall program and elites.
Brent Arckey (Sarasota) is up there too.
After those two, Mike Deboor (Lakeside – KY), Bruce Gemmell (NCAP), Ron Aitken (Sandpipers), Jason Walter (Lakeside – TX), Joe Natina (Crow Canyon) are some of the best.
Kayla is going back to CA.
So well deserved!!!