Indianapolis has long been one of the premier swim towns in the US, but this week they’re taking it to another level. The IUPUI Natatorium was the host of the US Olympic Trials for swimming for decades, and more recently, it’s been the host for diving Olympic Trials. The Natatorium has also hosted a ton of NCAA Championships, spanning across all 3 divisions of NCAA swimming. IUPUI has been the host for 19 World Records and well over 100 American Records, which has led to it being regarded as one of the “fastest” pools out there.
The legacy of IUPUI’s natatorium has led to Indianapolis being regarded as a swim city, as many high level meets have been hosted there, to the point where it’s hard for swimmers from all over the country to go their entire swimming careers without racing there. Indy upped the ante a few years back, temporarily renovating Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts, to host the 2024 Olympic Trials for swimming. After the 2024 Trials, IUPUI officially became IU Indianapolis, after IU and Purdue split their joint ownership of the university. This split rebranded the pool the “IU Natatorium.”
The IU Natatorium also hosts a spring Sectional meet in late March every year. Indy has once again upped the ante, as this year, there are 2 Sectional meets taking place in Indy. The annual Sectional at IUPUI is still happening, and Carmel Swim Club, based in a Northern suburb of Indy, is also hosting a sectional. These meets are going on simultaneously. You can find the meet info for both below:
2026 Central Zone East Spring Speedo Sectional
- March 26-29, 2026
- IU Natatorium, Indianapolis, IN
- LCM (50 meters)
- Event Page
- Live Results (on MeetMobile)
- Live Stream
2026 Four Corner Speedo Sectionals – Carmel –
- March 26-29, 2026
- Carmel High School, Carmel, IN
- SCY (25 yards)
- Results (on MeetMobile)
The main difference between these meets is that the IU Natatorium Sectional is LCM, as it always is, while the Carmel Sectional is SCY. To give an idea of how close these Sectional meets are, IU Natatorium and Carmel High School are about 30 minutes apart by car (17 mile drive).
This didn’t happen randomly, rather it’s just a fairly unique circumstance. the IU Natatorium Sectional is the Central Zone Sectional, as it always is, while the Carmel Sectional (4 Corners) is actually the Western Zone Sectional, it’s just being hosted in the Central Zone.
While it’s unusual that a Western Zone Sectional would be hosted so far from the Western Zone, attendance still looks good. Of course, Carmel hosting the meet will help the attendance, and the 4 Corners meet also allowed another prominent Central Zone team, Michigan-based Club Wolverine, as well as New England-based Commonwealth Swimming from the Eastern Zone. Despite the travel distance, a few dozen Western Zone teams have made the trip out to Carmel for this Sectional.
One other note on the Carmel Sectional, Thursday and Friday prelims don’t begin until Noon local time (Eastern Time). This is due to restrictions with the Carmel School District. The late prelims also naturally pushes finals back, so finals will begin at 6:30pm ET. While that’s a touch late for host team Carmel and the non Western teams like CW and Commonwealth, it actually works out in favor of the Western teams. Depending on whether a Western team is from Mountain Time or Pacific Time, a noon start time for prelims is actually 10:00am or 9:00am for them.
The Indy Sectional is pretty much business as usual. It’s missing Carmel, of course, which is a prominent team, but other than that, it looks like the same core of teams that usually attend the meet.
