Carmel Swim Academy is just one part of the larger Carmel Swim Club organization. CSC puts out a quarterly newsletter to share the latest news and what is coming up next for their athletes. The January issue was released today and includes updates from recent competitions (including THREE new National Age Group Records), highlights from our parent volunteers and team support experiences, CSC athlete engagement in core organizational values, and notes on community service initiatives. You can click to read the full newsletter HERE.

Thank you for being part of the Carmel Swim Club! What follows is an update about what our extraordinary swimmers have been up to this winter and some exciting news about what’s next for CSC. We are grateful to each of you for your support throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of you, we are able to continue to provide opportunities for children to learn and grow while living out our mission, teaching excellence through swimming, for life. 

Courage, Perseverance, and Team,
-CSC Staff

Carmel Swim Club closed out 2020 being named a USA Swimming Gold Medal Club for the seventh year in a row. Using a power point rating system from FINA, teams are assigned point values to individual swimming performances based on the Gold, Silver or Bronze time standard. Carmel Swim Club was also one of nine teams in the nation to be recognized as a Podium Club, an honor earned by achieving at least four consecutive years of Gold Medal status.
Wyatt Davis, 2020 graduate and current University of Michigan freshman, was named to the 2020-2021 USA Swimming National Junior Team for his performances in the 200 meter freestyle,100 meter backstroke and 200 meter backstroke. This is Davis’s second year as a member of the team. The team is comprised of the country’s fastest 18 & Under athletes; 28 women and 28 men. Click here for the entire National Junior Team roster and to learn more about the selection criteria.
Twenty-one new program records were established between October and December:

11-12 Girls 200y Breast: 2:27.19 – Lucy Enoch
11-12 Boys 200y Free: 1:48.16 – Lewis Zhang
11-12 Boys 200y Back: 2:01.95 – Lewis Zhang
11-12 Boys 200y Fly: 2:04.74 – Lewis Zhang
11-12 Boys 400y IM: 4:22.26 – Lewis Zhang
13-14 Girls 1650y Free: 17:01.59 – Lexi Ward
13-14 Boys 100y Free: 45.68 – Carter Lancaster
13-14 Boys 100y Back: 49.10 – Carter Lancaster
13-14 Boys 200y Back: 1:46.52 – Carter Lancaster
13-14 Boys 100y Breast: 57.42 – Carter Lancaster
13-14 Boys 100m Breast: 1:07.37 – Brandon Malicki
13-14 Boys 200y Breast: 2.07.06 – Brandon Malicki
13-14 Boys 100y Fly: 49.15 – Carter Lancaster
13-14 Boys 200y IM: 1:50.05 – Carter Lancaster
13-14 Boys 200m IM: 2:07.08 – Carter Lancaster
13-14 Boys 400y IM: 3:58.22 – Carter Lancaster
13-14 Boys 200y Medley Relay: 1:34.61*- C. Lancaster, B. Malicki, E. Haig, G. Enoch
13-14 Boys 400y Medley Relay: 3:24.49*- C. Lancaster, B. Malicki E. Haig, G. Enoch
13-14 Boys 400y Free Relay: 3:08.77*- C. Lancaster, L. Zhang, E. Haig, G. Enoch

OPEN Women 100y Breast: 1:02.13 – Devon Kitchel
OPEN Men 100y Breast: 54.42 – Ryan Malicki
*In addition to CSC records, National Age Group records were established in the 200 Medley Relay, 400 Medley Relay and 400 Free Relay.

       

Berit Berglund achieved her first Olympic Trial qualifying time at a time trial this December in the 100m backstroke. She joins teammate Madelyn Christman (100m and 200m backstroke) as one of two CSC athletes to qualify for the 2021 Olympic Trials. Who will be next?


All Carmel Aquatics Center operations transitioned to the Carmel Swim Academy name in December, and work continues to move forward with the construction of the CSA pool. This new facility will provide a home base for all of our non-competitive programs– including group swim lessons, Stroke Technique, Swim Club Prep, and private classes– as well as expand opportunities for CSC to grow our programs to better serve the community. Building the Carmel Swim Academy will also optimize the practice environments for all of our Carmel Swim Club athletes. Some groups will practice here during the week, freeing up additional space at the high school pool.

We will break ground early this spring and will open next winter. You can stay up to date with all of the latest CSA progress HERE. If you have any questions about the CSA project, please contact Maggie Mestrich.

Carmel Swim Club believes in developing the whole person, not just the athlete. One way we do this is by serving our community. Over the past three months, CSC took part in two major service projects.
TRUNK-OR-TREAT
In lieu of an in-person Trunk or Treat this year, CSC collected candy donations for Circle City Relief to distribute to the families they serve. As a club, we collected 9,532 pieces of candy. To learn more about Circle City Relief and how you can serve, head over to their page! To learn more or to get involved with this organization, click HERE.HAT, SOCK AND MITTEN DRIVE

Each year, CSC joins forces with the Woodland Holiday Club to support over 200 families, with nearly 600 children, who qualify for assistance through Indiana Social Services. The Hat, Sock and Mitten Drive exceeded last year’s total, with over 3,700 items collected for our community. A special thank you to Leslie Street for organizing this event!

This fall, we implemented a new project across all of our training groups. Each month, every member of our organization engages in-depth with one of the ten values we have identified as key parts of our CSC culture. These “words on the wall” (you may have seen them displayed on the banners hanging underneath the spectator area on the CHS pool deck) are guideposts for our team and provide the scaffolding for the culture we have worked so hard to build and continue to nurture at CSC:

— Courage — Perseverance — Respect — Determination — Gratitude —
— Unity — Passion — Hard Work — Accountability — Integrity —
This month we are taking a deeper look at Integrity, and have already covered Courage, Gratitude, and Hard Work. Take a look at what the athletes have to say about each of these values!
Each month the coaching staff recognizes one male and one female athlete from each training group as a Swimmer of the Month. These swimmers are selected based on the display of the ideals the staff feel are vital to long-term development, including ATTITUDE, EFFORT, COURAGE, PERSEVERANCE, and a FOR THE TEAM approach. Here are your athletes for the month of December:

D1: Ryleigh Strutz & Max Whisler
D2: Annika Hansen & Grayson Cardona
CH3: Ashlyn Hayes & Gabriel Wang
IM1: Libby Lail & Hudson Wenrick
IM2: Raelyn Repko & Flynn Keyser
CH2: Evelyn Murray & Reilly Sweeney
V1: Maddie Roesner & Alex Harrell
V2: Grace Gallagher & Jackson Strutz
CH1: Madison Conley & Luke Pugh
EX1: Lily Clark & Luke Feller
EX2: Ava Hulzebos & Jonathan Li
HP: Hayley Reed & Kellen Reese
SR1: Ally Ng & Emile Haig
SR2: Ella Connolly & Milan Srnic
SR3: Tiffany Yeh & Zach Sears

This fall, seven CSC seniors signed National Letters of Intent, declaring their commitment to continue their academic and athletic careers at the collegiate level.

Madelyn Christman- University of Notre Dame
Maggie DeLillo- Colgate University
Colleen Duffy- University of Missouri
Griffin Hadley- University Tennessee
Sammy Huff- University of Tennessee
Maggie Love- Purdue University
Gus Rothrock- University  of Tennessee
Thanks to our incredible Team Supporters, we were able to host two timed finals winter “Championship” meets, allowing all CSC athletes the opportunity to compete. Thank you to Cynthia Baldauf, Greg Baldauf, Kathy Kok, Tami Grismore-Palmer, Beth Russo, and Matt Street for serving as Meet Directors. We were also very excited to be able to provide a livestream so parents and athletes could have the opportunity to see their athletes compete. Thank you to Matt Street for making this possible!
The following athletes achieved six or more best times at the December 19-21 invitational with Fort Collins Area Swim Team and Lakeside:

10 & UNDER
Edward Enoch, Belle Faitele, Blake Hadley, Ashlyn Hayes, Tyler Johnson, Henry Kaul, Kate Kistler, Elijah Kocher, Brady Ladine, Jacob Polasky, Gabriel Wang, Helayna Weller, Hudson Wenrick

11-12
Zoe Baldauf, Aiden Clarke, Ellie Clarke, Maddie Cox, Ian DeLillo, Lucy Enoch, Conner Fletchall, Sophia Floyd, Cory Han, Aiden Jent, Emma Kou, William Lathrop, Bryce Lowe, Evelyn Murray, Julianna Ng, Addy Palmer, Olivia Pangemanan, Ellie Pollack, Annabel Pollert, Natalie Powers, Brian Qian, Maddie Roesner, Allie Russell, Laura Russo, Lilly Schaub, Jack Street, Reilly Sweeney, Aaron Trinh, Josephine Yeh, Emily Zhao, Eddy Zhu

13-14
Kayla Barr, Lynsey Bowen, Addy Czarnecki, Carter Hadley, Emile Haig, Cameron Harrell, Landon Holmes, Savannah Irizarry, Michael Jent, Anderson Kopp, Carter Lancaster, Brandon Malicki, Ally Ng, Luke Pugh, Eva Qiao, Kiarra Thomas, Lexie Ward, Juliana Weinrich, Shannon Wright, Ethan Zhang

OPEN
Berit Berglund, Madelyn Christman, Macie DeLillo, Grace Dougherty, Nick Edwards, Griffin Hadley, Leo Han, Chris Holmes, Kiera Kask, Maddy Lathrop, Kellen Reese, Gus Rothrock, Alex Russo, Ashlea Swingewood, Carson Szotek

The following athletes achieved six or more best times at the January 16-17 Intrasquad:

10 & UNDER
Owen Benesh, Claire Cate, Vincent Chen, Isa Herron, Ryan Huang, Flynn Keyser, Claire Kruse, Libby Lail, Casey Lemme, Angie Li, Graham Lindsay, James Mayer, Ziad Morad, Alex Morea, Evan Palmer, Ethan Pei, Anwesha Shah, Paige Shannon, Maya Sharma, Alden Thomas, Evan Tiedemann, Sierra Weinrich, Mia Zeigler, Demi Zhang

11-12
Rohan Agarwal, Shrey Aggarwal, Lucy Anderson, Aubrey Benesh, Emerson Cardona, Philip Chang, Daniel Colmenarez Leyva, Bella Cox, Gretchen Davis, Cadence Fernandez, Sam Feys, Grace Gallagher, Alex Harrell, Michelle Huang, Leah Inendino, Sabrina Ledwith, Addy Lehman, Rebecca Li, Jake Lindsay, Elsie McAndrews, Akshita Mishra, Noah Moeller, Kendyl Monke, Ryan Morea, Raelyn Repko, Hanna Schaller, Samantha Simmons, Vaibhaav Sonaji, Jackson Struts, Cooper Szotek, Ranie Yang, Aiden Zeigler

13-14
Kelsey Baldauf, Alexa Chang, Lily Clark, Ella DeGeronimo, Charlotte Fagin, Avery Fox, Tyson Haynes, Ava Hulzebos, Jack Keyser, Will Ladine, Jonathan Li, Alex Lipkovich, Hannah McNally, Kotaro Nagai, Zach Sears, Aayush Singh, Aneesha Singh, Juahn Sung, Zach Welch, Abe Weller, Kevin Zhang, Thomas Zimmerman

OPEN
Noah Meroueh, Milan Srnic, Quinn Sweeney, Timothy Tiedemann

The following athletes earned their FIRST Junior National cut this winter:

Chris Holmes, Carter Lancaster, Kayden Lancaster, Brandon Malicki, Kellen Reese, Sean Sullivan

The following athletes earned their FIRST Sectional cut this winter:

Lynsey Bowen, Lucy Enoch, Maddy Lathrop, Graham Seaver, Carson Szotek, Kiarra Thomas, Brandon Trinh, Lewis Zhang 

The following athletes earned their FIRST Age Group or Senior State cut this winter:

10&U
Edward Enoch, Isabelle Faitele, Blake Hadley, Ryan Huang, Claire Kate, Jacob Polasky, Alden Thomas, Hudson Wenrick

11-12
Aiden Jent, Julianna Ng, Reilly Sweeney, Jack Street

13-14
Madison Conley, Tyson Haynes, Landon Holmes, Anderson Kopp, Will Lathrop, Hannah McNally, Luke Pugh, Ethan Zhang

OPEN
Brooke Cummings, Quinn Sweeney

Megan Kight and Kate Wilson serve as CSC’s Meet Referees and have been responsible for refereeing all five meets we have hosted since August. Get to know them here!
Megan Kight has been a Carmel Swim Club parent for 15 years, but CSC has been a part of her life since since 1978 when she joined the club at five years old. Continuing her career at Depauw University, she returned to CSC in the summers to train. In 2006, after a positive neighborhood swim team experience, her eldest two children, Ellie and Sammy, followed in her footsteps and  joined Carmel Swim Club. They are now in college, but her youngest son, Calvin, is still currently a member. Megan got involved as an official almost immediately in 2006, progressing through the ranks as a Stroke and Turn Official, a Starter and finally, a Deck Referee. She has served as CSC’s Officals Committee Chair for 5 years. She enjoys serving in this role because, “Officiating allows me to contribute to the team, the sport and to my children individually. Officiating allows me to be on deck to watch the action, train new officials to enable the club to continue to host high-quality meets, and it communicates my support to my kids, the other athletes and the coaches. Above all, however, I have met so many wonderful people in the last 15 years as an official. We have clocked so many long hours on decks together that life-long friendships were forged which I treasure.” Thank you for all you do, Megan!
“I believe that meaningfully participating in Team Support sends a loud and clear message to the athletes and coaches that you support the mission of the club, and the development of the swimmers, and my swimmers in particular. Just as CSC teaches our kids to be Triple Impact competitors to make themselves, their teammates and the sport better, I believe we can and should do so as volunteers as well.  Officiating is a perfect way to do that – I have gained a wealth of knowledge about the sport, trained others to contribute to the sport for years to come and to allow Carmel to continue to offer high quality meets, and I have been able to watch my own kids evolve, develop, overcome challenges and profoundly benefit from the sport.” -Megan Kight
Kate Wilson has also been a CSC parent for 15 years. All three of her children swam for the club, and her youngest, Vivian, is currently a sophomore at Carmel High School. With three kids swimming, she knew she would be at meets all day anyway, so becoming an official was the natural choice for her. She became an official in 2006 and quickly worked her way up to Referee. She recalls many female referees in the state taking her under their wing, offering her support and encouragement throughout the process. Kate has worked decks for developmental athletes all the way through national level competition, and has been able to put this wide array of experience to good use while adapting to the new social-distancing protocols. She enjoys being able to provide a safe and educational environment, and seeing some great swimming along the way! When reflecting on her role as an official, she feels that, “In some small way it was just another way I could tangibly show my kids that I was just as invested in them and the sport they loved.” Kate, we appreciate all you do!
“CSC has been an instrumental part of my children’s development and has taught so many life lessons that go way beyond the pool deck.  I think it really is a way that I can say thank you to a club/organization for being a second family to my kids (now adults/young adults). Even when I did not always understand or like a decision, I had complete confidence in the CSC leadership. For our family, it reinforced similar values so it just worked.” – Kate Wilson
Interested in learning how you can get involved? Contact Rhiannon Sheets.

Chis Plumb got his start in the sport at a the age of 6, swimming for Lake Shore Swim Club (now STAR) in Buffalo, New York. He competed at the collegiate level for Indiana University, where he was an All-American. Prior to CSC, Chris was the assistant coach at University of Miami. He was named Head Coach/CEO of Carmel Swim Club in July 2006, but has been with the program since 2003. As Head Coach/CEO, Chris oversees all aspects of the club, and he coaches High Performance training group.  He is a dynamic leader for the organization, and works tirelessly to push Carmel to be a model club both in the state of Indiana and nationally.  Chris’s execution of the Carmel Swim Club vision to be a community club with a national presence continues to push CSC to new levels of success, including recognition as a USA Swimming Gold Medal Club of Excellence ten times since 2010. He believes the community’s support of Carmel Swim Club’s commitment to developing the entire person, not just the athlete, sets CSC apart. His two sons, Will and Nick, are currently members of the club.
“Coaching allows me to follow my passion – helping people.  I grew up watching my father, a doctor, and my mom, a nurse, help people.  Swimming is the vehicle in which I get to help people and a community.” -Chris Plumb

Carmel Swim Club believes in the pursuit of excellence as a pathway to both personal success and community development. Our program teaches youth and adults the values of courage, perseverance, and team. We develop outstanding people to be leaders and influential people in society. These efforts are made possible through the generous support of the following sponsors:

PLATINUM
Elsmore Swim Shop
MacDesigns
SpeedoGOLD
Gordon Flesch Company, Inc.
Indiana Hernia Center
Perfect Pallets, Inc.
PrimeLife Enrichment, Inc.
St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic Church

SILVER
Arni’s Restaurant
Crossfit Indianapolis
Delk/McNally, LLP
Indy Spine and Rehab, P.C.
PactSafe, Inc.
Powerade
Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP
Wagner Reese, LLP

BRONZE
Ellen Johns, DDS
Indy Garage Doorman
Park+Elm Financial Investment Advisers, LLC
Pro Service Pools
Summit Construction Co., Inc.