Carmel girls swimming enjoying unprecedented success
CARMEL, Ind. (BVM) — Winning a high school state championship in any sport is a great feat. It brings a school, town, and community together as one. Earning two or three championships in a row is even more impressive, and shows a rare level of dominance. Then, there is the Carmel High School girls swim team, who won their 34th consecutive state championship this past February.
The incredible streak began all the way back in 1986, almost two decades before some of the girls on the current team were even born. Head coach Chris Plumb has overseen the last 14 Greyhound championships, and has 22 state championships to his name overall.
This year, the state match wasn’t even close as the Greyhounds put up 426.5 points en route to another title. Their next closest competition, Fishers, scored 208. It is rare to dominate in this fashion, and Carmel’s point total was the fourth highest in girls swimming state championship history. The team was deep this year and were led at state by sophomore Gretchen Lueking, who won the 200 yard freestyle, and freshman Berit Berglund, who won the 100 yard backstroke.
For the first time in years, Carmel returned zero individual state champion swimmers from the previous season, but that did not create any sense of nerves. In fact, this turned out to be one of their most dominant groups, thanks to the youth they had paired alongside their senior leadership. What ultimately impressed coach Plumb about this team was their togetherness.
“They really root for each other. The support and the willingness to share with each other and care about swimming…the willingness to do more for each other than they would for themselves is what was special about this group,” Plumb said.
The 34th consecutive title extends Carmel’s all-time national record for most consecutive championships across all high school sports. As Plumb points out, this program has brought a great honor to the school and community.
“It is a point of pride. People recognize the program with excellence when you win 34 in a row,” he said.
When Carmel won its 30th title in a row, the city even held a parade for the Greyhounds – something you don’t see too often for a swimming team.
With this amount of success, one would think the team could become complacent. For this school though, that has never been much of an issue.
“If you’re a girl coming into the program, there is a bit of that ‘Hey, I don’t want this to end on my watch’ thought and even if you’re a junior going into your senior year you’ve only personally won three. When you’re coming in you’re hungry for four,” Plumb said.
Coach Plumb attributes the success of the program to the standards that are put in place as well.
“I think in any endeavor that you do it always comes down to the standards that you set. We make sure as a coaching staff that we set high standards and enforce them,” Plumb noted.
He also preaches that it is a group effort between the athletic administration, parents, coaches, and swimmers that has led to this dominance.
“To have sustained success you need a lot of oars pulling in the same direction. It’s always a collective endeavor,” the coach added.
A vision, constant need for improvement, and drive to never be satisfied are additional principles that Plumb instills to keep this team successful. Creating a positive environment and atmosphere has been a key for the team over the years as well, and having the opportunity to preach his values at a program like this has been special for Plumb.
“It is such an honor to be able to coach here. To be able to influence young people and to help them learn what it takes to be successful…that’s why I do what I do,” Plumb said. “Our influence won’t be measured until 20-30 years from now, and it’s then I’ll know the true impact that I had.”
The swimming success at Carmel doesn’t stop with the girls either, as the boys team just won their sixth straight title. Both teams tend to motivate each other in what Plumb calls a lighthearted rivalry.
“I think they’re better with each other than without each other. The girls keep the boys behaving and the boys keep the girls in line,” he said.
Ultimately, for this year’s girls team, the most satisfying part was the progress the team made.
“Not really knowing how good we were or how good we could be, how far we came was the most rewarding part to me,” Plumb mentioned.
Someone like MacKenna Lieske would be a great example of that progress. As a sophomore she finished runner-up in the 200 yard IM after dropping an incredible 12 seconds off her race time from the beginning of the season through state.
That kind of athletic improvement and achievement has become the norm at Carmel. Next fall, the girls will look to win their 35th straight title. With the young talent they have in place, extending their streak seems quite likely.
“I think we have a very young team and a very competitive team,” Plumb said. “We’ll lose some seniors, but I feel good about these girls moving forward and what’s going to happen for us.”
A truly impressive and dominant program continues to get stronger. With great leadership and many talented girls on the team, it is hard to see Carmel relinquishing a state title to anyone in the near future.
