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Mount swimmers second at league meet
by TOM UTESCHER
While powerful Villa Maria Academy was the clear favorite going into
the Athletic Association of Catholic Academies swimming championships,
second place was up for grabs amongst several other squads.
Mount St. Joseph Academy rose to the occasion to become league runner-up
at the February 10 event, as a team total of 254 points landed the Magic
behind Villa (342 points) and ahead of third-place Nazareth Academy (236).
Merion Mercy came in fourth with 193 points, and Gwynedd Mercy was fifth,
with 169.
Although the Mount finished first in just one event, the locals were
able to accumulate a lot of points elsewhere, with four second-place finishes,
two thirds, two fourths, and five fifth-place performances. The Nazareth
Pandas gave the Magic a spirited battle for the team silver medal.
“We were neck-and-neck with Nazareth,” related MSJ coach
Janet Tompkins, “then in the breaststroke we finished second, third,
fifth, and 11th to pretty much lock up second place.”
Those Mount scorers were (in order) sophomore Jackie Hain (1:11.76),
junior Athena Diaconis, senior Jaclyn Kouch, and sophomore Michelle Lally.
Hain was also the runner-up in the 200-yard individual medley (2:17.28),
and she anchored the Magic’s gold medal quartet in the medley relay,
swimming behind senior Kristen McCabe, Diaconis, and sophomore Caroline
Menapace. McCabe gave the locals second place in the backstroke (1:04.37),
and she came in fifth in the butterfly, where Menapace placed sixth. Distance
freestyler Julie Erhart, a junior, also made a strong showing for Mount
St. Joe, capturing second place in the 500 (5:32.97) and fourth in the
200.
In the 100 free Mount sophomore Megan Held placed fifth, breaking the
one-minute mark for the first time to clock in at 59.57 seconds. She also
wound up tenth amongst a fast field of competitors in the 50 free. Here,
the old meet record was broken by both Meggie Mongan (24.77) and Bridget
Halligan (25.20) of Villa Maria, while the Magic picked up seventh place
from Diaconis (27:05) and ninth from freshman Mary Maginnis.
Another freshman freestyler, Jaclyn Rossetti, placed fifth in the 200
and seventh in the 500, and fellow ninth grader Lauren Lahann was ninth
in the individual medley. The Magic’s lone diver, sophomore Caitlin
O’Connell, took fifth place in her event.
Coach Tompkins was also pleased to note that even swimmers who didn’t
attain lofty placings were motivated to achieve new personal bests. She
pointed out that junior Ali Pugh sliced a second off of her previous PR’s
in both the 50 and 100 freestyle races.
In addition to taking first in the medley relay, the Magic acquired valuable
points in the two freestyle relays. In the 200, where Villa won in a meet
record time of 1:43.59, the Mount quartet of Held, Rossetti, Erhart and
Diaconis touched up in 1:48.56 to secure the bronze medal. The locals
came in fourth in the 400, thanks to Rossetti, Hain, Erhart and McCabe
(3:55.56).
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