“My young relative - a nationally-ranked athlete - was recruited to play for an Ivy beginning this fall. She will have completed Honors Pre-Calc.”
Pre-calc honors while a tough course for sure would not be competitive with other ivy applicants, especially if they’re STEM majors. Typically they have Calc, Stats or even higher level math courses at a community college. I doubt the GC would have checked most rigorous curriculum for someone that has not taken Calculus if it was offered at the HS. The athlete hook definitely helped for sure, which it should as you point out, you cannot take many AP courses and be a recruitable athlete.