By Renee Larr
Carmel Swim Club has been named one of the Top 20 swim clubs in the nation by USA Swimming. This is the seventh time in the last eight years it has made the list.
USA Swimming looks at approximately 3,500 clubs when forming its rankings through the Club Excellence program. Carmel Swim Club placed fourth, the highest ranking it’s ever achieved.
“It’s a performance ranking based off athletes achieving certain time standards. There is a power point system through FINA, which is the world governing body,” Carmel Swim Club Associate Head Coach Ian Murray said. “If your athletes turn in a performance at a certain level, they get a certain amount of points, and the points go up the higher and higher the level.”
The ranking puts the Carmel club behind the much larger Nation’s Capital Swim Club, Marlins of Raleigh Swim Club and Dynamo Swim Club.
“It’s a big honor for us. It’s something we’re using as a measuring stick for our program,” Murray said. “It’s really exciting for us, too, because the three clubs that are in front of us are either double, triple or quadruple the size of us, meaning they have that many more athletes than we do. And they draw from a major metropolitan area. Our club for the large majority is home-grown and based out of the City of Carmel.”
Carmel Swim Club is well known for competitive swimming, but it also offers programs for beginners.
“We have about 475 registered competitive athletes. That’s just part of the scope that we reach,” Murray said. “We have a comprehensive swimming program. We have a learn to swim program. We have a small feeder system where kids graduate from our learn to swim system before they graduate to our competitive team. We offer community lap swim for the community.”
For more, visit usaswimming.org.
