2026 All-Area Boys' Swimmer of the Year: Medlin goes out with bang at state
DANVILLE - Standing behind the starting blocks at the FMC Natatorium in Westmont, Charles Medlin had "Better Off Alone" by Alice Deejay playing in his ears on repeat.
"I was jamming," Medlin said as he hummed the tune and revisited his mindset in the moment at the IHSA state finals in late February.
He was loose. Much more than you might expect for somebody who was about to compete in the 50-yard freestyle state championship, a race that would give the winner the title of the state's fastest swimmer.
Medlin used up all of his focus to get there. In the prelims the day before, there were plenty more thoughts racing through his mind. Getting off to a good start, going into the wall with speed and kicking hard off the wall to propel him into a strong back half of the race. The Schlarman senior went on to swim a personal-best time of 20.49 seconds, seeding him fourth for the final. He had done what he set out to do. Now, it was time to let loose.
"I was just thinking, 'Let's go do it. Let's go have fun. You made it here. You deserve this. Just go out there and do it,'" Medlin said he told himself right before that championship race. "I didn't think during the 50 final. I hit the water, and there were no thoughts. I just put my head down and dug for 20 seconds."
Medlin finished and immediately turned around to look at the results on the screen. He struggled to see through his goggles, but he was able to make out a 20.19 in second place. He assumed it was somebody else, considering that would have been another three-tenths of a second off of his personal record in just one day.
Until he saw his name next to it.
"Shock," Medlin said. "I wanted to win pretty bad, but I knew everybody else in that heat did, too. I did what I went there to do. This was the fun part. Whatever I placed, I would have been completely happy. To come up No. 2 was really, really cool. It's indescribable. It was a surreal feeling. I was dumbstruck from it."
Medlin was the 50 freestyle state runner-up, just a tenth of a second behind Vernon Hills junior Yury Plaksin, but his day wasn't done.
Two events later, Medlin swam in the B final of the 100 freestyle. While he couldn't win the title from that heat, he approached it with the same loose mindset, knowing it was the last race of his high school career.
"I don't know if I would have done that well in the 100 if I didn't have that 50 performance. I was electric coming off of that 50 freestyle," Medlin said. "My whole attitude going into the 100 was, 'This is it. Make it worth it.'"
He did that and then some. Medlin swam a 43.94, which not only won the heat to place ninth but would have beaten everyone but Plaksin in the A final. It was another personal record, but this one was a little extra impressive because he had never even broken the 45-second mark before, let alone 44.
Soon after his time flashed on the screen, Medlin's parents, Carol and Scot, and the rest of his about a dozen supporters in the stands were the loudest of anyone in the venue.
"My heart leapt, and I was so excited for him," Carol said. "It was so incredible to watch. It was really special. We had teammates and family come up to watch our little Charlie. It's such a big meet with all these big names, and to do what he did, I was pretty proud of him."
Scot described his son's performance as "jaw-dropping," and The News-Gazette agreed, naming Medlin the All-Area Boys' Swimmer of the Year for the 2025-26 season.
Beginning to blossom
The ending of Medlin's high school career is ironic considering how it began. He started practicing when he was 5 years old, not competing yet because he was scared to go off the blocks. It wasn't until the following summer that he joined the Danville Country Club and swam in some youth competitions.
"It was sort of a trial by fire," Medlin said with a laugh. "During the first ones, I feel like I kind of didn't want to be there. I was a little menace at the time, running around and making the coaches mad."
It didn't take long for Medlin to start enjoying the sport. More than that, he realized: "I'm kind of good at this." He was always the fast kid who had to swim up in the older divisions, and he made countless lifelong friendships through the swimming community.
When he got to high school, however, it got a little tougher because Schlarman didn't have an official swim team. Luckily for him, his older sister, 2020 graduate Mae Grace, had already "blazed that trail for me."
Mae Grace faced the same hurdle when she first arrived as a freshman in the fall of 2016. She had multiple conversations with her principal and athletic director, and while they couldn't make it official her freshman year, she was representing the Hilltoppers by her sophomore year.
"She really championed that," Carol said. "She was like, 'I'm going to swim for Schlarman.' They couldn't get it done her freshman year, but they put their heads together and figured out the IHSA rules to make it work."
Pursuing his passion
With the foundation already set from his sister, Medlin was able to compete right away during his freshman season, and his first sectional meet was a bit of a wake-up call.
"The sectional my freshman year was one of the most competitive meets I had been to. I swam the 200 freestyle against Nolan Miller, who went on to win that year. Scary, for sure," Medlin said of going up against the former Champaign Central standout. "He got up on the blocks, and I looked over at him like, 'He doesn't look that fast.' You look at all these ripped guys in this heat with little ol' me in lane one and Nolan Miller in the middle. He whooped me."
But Medlin's seasons still looked different compared to everyone else who had a full school team. This year, he only had two teammates at Schlarman. The year before, it was him and one other guy. That doesn't provide much opportunity for competition. So, Medlin trained with his club team, the Champaign HEAT, until the start of the postseason. Most of his club teammates were in their school seasons during those stretches, so it was still "definitely hard" to find ways to improve, but his love for the sport and the people in it kept him going.
"The swimming community is so widespread and so connected that it doesn't feel like I'm disconnected from it because I miss the high school season," Medlin said. "In training, you kind of have to push yourself and push everybody else in those practices, but I genuinely enjoy it. I couldn't see a world where I don't swim. It's definitely something that defines me as a person."
It's still in his future
So much that he's going to continue his swimming career at the University of Illinois-Chicago next year, signing his letter of intent last November. Medlin is planning to major in kinesiology with a focus in sports psychology, for which UIC has an "outstanding" program, he said. Medlin met some of his future teammates at February's state meet, and he's already "crazy excited" for what's next.
"It just felt like home," Medlin said of his decision to commit to UIC. "I also really enjoyed the team atmosphere. The coaches were really connected with the team. It just felt right. I had a lot of really good options, but it just came down to where my heart wanted to be, and that was UIC. It's coming up really quickly, and I'm super excited for the next level."
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