Carmel Squashes 200/400 Free Relay High School Records

Braden McCormack Matthew McCormack,Morgan McCormack Indiana is pretty darn fast…..

I agree with intimation that this Carmel girl’s squad may be the nations best girl’s team of all-time, especially based on the relay performances — 3 up, 3 national records.

Congratulations must go to Coach Plumb and anyone else who may have contributed to the development of any of the Carmel girl scorers. They won by over 300 points and that fact, along with the gloriously out of the box thinking Plumb made in event selection for Veronica Burchill (all three relays and only one individual event made me realize they had the horses for something even more impressive. Burchill was incredible, being an important part of all three national record relays and then swimming :52.26 in her individual event foray in the 100 fly. That swim surpassed Misty Hyman’s record that had lasted from 1996 until the last reporting period when Beata Nelson of Minnesota (Public) and Katie McGlothlin (Independent) finally surpassed Misty’s mark with :51.70 and :51.78, respectively.

It is normal/reaonable box” thinking to maximize your point total (certainly a worthy goal) by normal swimming standards your “studs” in two individual and two relays, which is what Chris did with Amy and Clare. It occurred to me during the course of the meet as Carmel’s margin in the team race continued to balloon, that some really amazing things were left undone when Adams and Bilquist followed “normal” course and swam two individual events, though those team points were certainly not important to the final outcome of the meet.

Carmel broke three National High School relay records, with impressive performances, 2 breaking “barriers,” 1:40 MR and 3:20 400 FR; consider for a moment what might have occurred had three choices occurred, including another likely barrier breaker, surpassing 1:30 in the 200 FR :
1. Each relay member simply equaled their best actual swim of the weekend;
2. Adams gave up the 200 free to take part in the 50 back of the Medley relay; Carmel had the 2nd place finisher who would have moved to the 20 point position without Adams;
3. Bilquist gave up the 100 free to take part in the 4×50 Free. Carmel had the 2nd AND 3RD place finishers who would have garnered the 20 and 17 without Bilquist.

MEDLEY RELAY — Replace Sammi Burchill (:25.39) with Clare Adams on the 50 back; in the 100 Back, Adams outsplit S Burchill by about .8 or so, both a.m. and p.m. including a :25.43 TO THE FEET in the 100 back prelims. It’s probably fair to say Adams would have gained about a second for the relay == 1:38.2 or so.

4 x 50 FREE RELAY — Simply add Bilquist in the anchor spot; she was :21.55 on the end of the Medley relay; the actual 4×50 FR anchor was :23.13; that 1.58 difference produces a 1:29.12 — BUSTING THE 1:30 MAGIC MARK. It is reasonable to note in terms of Amy’s development that she was winning the Arizona 10&Un State Meet High Point as an 8 year old for Westside Silverfins and 8 years later won her 3rd and 4th division 4A high school titles as a Verrado High sophomore, including a still standing 4A 50 freestyle state record :22.96 (would have even won the Indiana meet for Amy this year where second behind her was over 23 seconds) before the family moved to Indiana where Amy stepped into a wonderful Carmel program which appears to have done done a wonderful job in furthering her development.

4X100 FREE RELAY — Leave V Burchill leadoff and Bilquist anchor untouched. Adams was :48.68 but had been an even more wonderful :48.10 anchoring this relay in prelims. Kendall Smith split a :50.52 but this was after she had done a flat start :50.31 in the prelims of the individual 100, in which she eventually finished 2nd at :50.63. Giving a somewhat standard 0.60 adjustment for a flying start, Smith might have been expected to pitch in a :49.71, 0.81 better than the :50.52 actually swum. Giving an idea of the depth available to this contender for team honors. “best ever,” Also available was Trude Rothrock, a freshman who was 3rd in the individual 100 at :50.70 and 500 winner Emma Norden who lead off the prelim relay at :50.95.

With the noted adjustments we woud have:
200 MR — 1:38.2
200 FR — 1:29.12
400 FR — 3:13.99

With these relay numbers the discussion of “best ever” would simply melt away.