by Tom Utescher

The winners of the Superbowl will be fortunate to have their victory generate such a fervent fanfare. While Mount St. Joseph Academy swimmers looked on last Tuesday evening, the Gwynedd Mercy Academy aquatics team and its entourage celebrated wildly in the pool at La Salle High School, which often serves as the home venue for both teams.

It was an event which was many years in the making – at long last the Monarchs had bested the Mount Magic in their annual regular-season Catholic Academies meet, 50-44. Mount St. Joe came away with a record of 3-3 overall and 2-1 within the Athletic Association of Catholic Academies, and the Magic still have close rival Nazareth and longtime defending champion Villa Maria left on the schedule.

Gwynedd, which suffered its lone loss against Villa Maria in mid-January, improved to 3-1 in the league and 4-1 overall with last Tuesday’s outcome.

The Monarchs’ modern-day effort to overcome the Mounties began in earnest back in the 2012-13 season under head coach Heather Norman. Gwynedd’s freshman class included a true swimming superstar, Allie Szekely, who’d created a sensation at the 2012 U.S. Olympic trials.

That season, Gwynedd lost to the Mount by 17 points (55-38), and the following winter, with Szekely’s younger sister Stephanie added to the roster, the Monarchs got the margin down to a dozen points (53-41). Last year, with Maura Gilles now the head coach and Norman serving as an assistant, GMA had the lead more than halfway through the Mount meet. However, the Magic captured the momentum with a strong performance in the 200-meter freestyle relay and went on to win, 88-82.

The reason for the higher point totals last year was that the meet took place in a regular six-lane pool at Arcadia University. There, the teams followed the standard practice of awarding points to the top five swimmers in individual events. With the action shifting back to La Salle’s four-lane facility this season, just four points were awarded the winner, three to the runner-up, and one to the third-place finisher.

In relays at a four-lane venue, the scoring goes six-three-one, and last Tuesday the point breakdown followed a clear pattern. The Monarchs took first place in all eight individual events, but here the Mount was able to achieve a standoff by coming in second and third, giving each school four team points towards its overall total.

For Gwynedd Mercy, the three relay races made the difference. Each time the Monarchs won – and they won all three events – they would gain a two- point advantage in the team score even if the Magic placed second and third, which they did.

Longtime MSJ coach Janet Pudlinski remarked, “I was proud of our girls because they held their own and they got every second and third. That was what we needed to do, and then hope for an upset somewhere, I was hoping we could sneak a win in one of the relays, and we got close in the 200 free.”

Contemplating the Gwynedd line-up, the Mount mentor said “It’s not just the Szekely sisters anymore, because girls like Hannah Blaser and Annie O’Dare are very talented swimmers. Alaina Zaki [a sophomore] has also been swimming well for them lately, which caused us to slide a few people around.”

At the narrow La Salle pool, there was no possibility of the Magic picking up points for fourth and fifth-place finishes.

“With their group of top swimmers, and knew it would be very difficult for us to win any individual events,” Pudlinksi noted, “and mathematically in a four-lane pool there wasn’t much we could do.”

Gwynedd gained an initial two-point edge (6-4) as the meet commenced with the 200-yard medley relay. The quartet of Allie Szekely, O’Dare, Zaki, and Steph Szekely turned in an impressive victory in one minute, 49.01 seconds. In second, at 1:58.22, was the Mount foursome of freshman Bryn McLaughlin, junior Grace Comerford, freshman Hailey Goodyear, and junior Aly Carpenter, and in third, just three-hundredths of a second back, were sophomore Rebecca Patti, and seniors Julia Comerford, Rachel Sandquist and Katie Zimmerman.

Next, Steph Szekely won the 200 freestyle in 1:55.34 and older sister Allie conquered the 200 individual medley in 2:05.44. In the freestyle, Mount St. Joe got second and third place from junior Katie Schaefer (2:04.30) and senior Liz DeGroat (2:07.16), and the Magic picked up the same two spots in the medley thanks to Patti (2:23.15) and Julia Comerford (2:25.22).

Zaki sprinted to victory for GMA in the 50 freestyle (24.69), and was followed to the wall by sophomore Jen DeGroat (25.56) and McLaughlin (25.81) of Mount St. Joe. Where there would normally be a break in the swimming for a diving competition (there’s no board at La Salle), the teams jointly held a Senior Night ceremony.

In addition to Julia Comerford, Sandquist, Zimmerman and Liz DeGroat, the Magic gave a send-off to Audrey Ezzo, Molly Leighton, Emily McMullen (the lone diver), Emma Woolley and manager Allison McMullen. While most have not yet finalized their college plans, Comerford has committed to row at Fordham University, and Emily McMullen plans to attend Philadelphia University.

Gwynedd’s Allie Szekely will continue her career at Stanford University and her classmate, Blaser, will swim for Penn State.

Gwynedd was leading, 18-16, at the interlude, and when the meet action resumed, the Monarchs’ butterfly ace, O’Dare, won that 100-yard race comfortably in 1:00.47. Close together in second and third were the Mount’s Liz DeGroat (1:04.09) and Sandquist (1:04.13).

In the 100 freestyle, GMA’s Blaser won (52.81) ahead of the Magic’s Jen DeGroat (56.25) and Zimmerman (59.38). In the longest race, the 500 free, Steph Szekely prevailed in 5:10.38 while MSJ’s Schaefer was runner-up in 5:38.25 and her sophomore teammate Cathryn Antonacio came in third in 5:55.44.

Next came the 200 freestyle relay, the event in which Mount St. Joseph got on the winning track in last year’s meet. At this stage of the 2016 encounter, the Magic really needed to win a race somehow, somewhere, but it never happened.

Gwynedd, which had maintained its two-point lead from the opening relay through six individual events, bumped up to a 36-32 edge in the team score with a victory in the 200 free relay. This Szekely-free contest was a close one, but O’Dare led out McKenna, Zaki, and Blaser as the Monarchs won, 1:42.50 to 1:43.96 over the runner-up Mount team of Jen DeGroat, Zimmerman, Liz DeGroat, and Schaefer. In third, at 1:46.40, were McLoughlin, freshman Shayne McKernan, Carpenter, and Antonacio of the Magic.

Allie Szekely churned out a time of 55.50 seconds to win the 100 back stroke, while Patti (1:04.62) and McLaughlin (1:05.31) did their job for Mount St. Joe’s, landing in second and third place, respectively.

The pattern was maintained right through the final individual event, the 100 breast stroke. Monarchs rising star O’Dare clocked in with a victorious time of 1:08.22, and next to the wall were the Mount’s dueling Comerford sisters, second-place Grace (1:13.31) and number three Julia (1:13.72).

“I think Julia was actually ahead at the flags,” Pudlinski related, “and Grace just touched her out. They’re both so nice that even though they try to push one another in the pool, they always support each other.”

The Comerfords are graduates of Norwood Fontbonne Academy, as is Julia’s senior classmate, Woolley.

After the breast stroke, the meet was still just a four-point affair at 44-40, but now only one race remained, the 400 freestyle relay. The Mount would need to capture at least first and third place just to tie the Monarchs at 47-47, and would need to finish first and second in order to win. Neither scenario was likely to pan out, since Steph and Allie Szekely would be swimming the last two legs for Gwynedd’s primary quartet.

As it turned out, the siblings simply had to preserve a lead that their teammates had already established. Blaser was ahead by 10 yards at the end of the opening stage, and junior Alyssa Gesek maintained the lead during the second stage to set up the Szekelys. The Monarchs wrapped up the win with a time of 3:40.75, while the Magic’s Jen DeGroat, Antonaccio, Liz DeGroat, and Schaefer were second in 3:56.56. Third, with a time of 4:00.32, was the Mount foursome of Zimmerman, McKernan, Carpenter, and Patti.

“I thought Aly Carpenter had a great meet,” MSJ skipper Pudlinksi said, “and girls like Rebecca Patti and Katherine Schaefer are so versatile I can use them almost anywhere.”

All three will be back next season, and with freshmen like McLaughlin, Goodyear, and McKernan having good rookie seasons, there is promise for the program going forward.