Columbus North’s Mridula Muthukumaran competes in the 200-yard individual medley during a swim meet against Franklin at Nov. 25, 2025, Columbus North High School.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
Mridula Muthukumaran is making her return to the Girls Swimming State Finals.
The junior from Columbus North will compete in the 200-yard individual medley in the prelims beginning at 6 p.m. Friday at the Indiana University Natatorium on the campus of IU Indianapolis. She is the only girls swimmer from the area to qualify for state.
If Muthukumaran had any nerves from competing in last year’s event, she won’t have as much this weekend and will be more comfortable in the water, knowing what the state finals atmosphere is going to feel like.
“I definitely built up my confidence more than I did have last year because going into last year, I kind of had a little more pressure of making it to state, but this year, I felt more confident,” Muthukumaran said. “I put in the work that was needed. I just went out there, and I did what I needed to, and I kind of hope that I got what I needed. I was really happy with it. Going into state, I’m also a little more excited because it does take off the pressure, and you go out and have fun and race fast.”
Muthukumaran competed in the state finals last year in both the 200 IM and the 100 butterfly after winning both events in the sectional with times of 2 minutes, 13.82 seconds and 59.86 seconds, respectively, which were personal-bests at the time.
In the sectional competition Saturday at East Central, Muthukumaran swam 2:11.30 in the 200 IM, which was nearly five seconds faster than Thursday’s sectional prelims.
“She wants to go faster, and I think she definitely can. She’s gotten a lot more comfortable swimming on bigger stages,” North coach Mike Cunningham said. “Last year, she was definitely because it was her first time. She started hitting lots of senior state cuts, too, and so this time, she’s a lot more comfortable. She’s still going to be nervous, but I think she’s going to be real excited. I think we’ll get a little bit faster time out of her at the end.”
It will be a tall order on Friday as Muthukumaran is seeded 25th in the 200 IM and likely will need to improve her time by four or five seconds from her sectional time to have a chance to swim on Saturday in the consolation finals and by more than eight seconds to have a chance to qualify for the championship finals. The fastest eight times on Friday will swim in the championship finals, and the ninth-through-16th fastest times will swim in the consolation finals.
In the state finals last year, Muthukumaran finished 29th in the 200 IM in 2:15.99. She hopes to turn the tide on Friday.
“My goal was to get to state, and then at state, I just want to have fun and be able to enjoy it and being able to see my team there and represent Columbus North, and I’m super happy with how I’ve done so far,” she said.
