Cardinals 8th in prestigous Catholic Nationals

This past weekend 27 teams (376 swimmers) were invited to compete in the 76th Annual Catholic National Championships @ Villanova University. Bishop Ireton returned to Philadelphia after 20 years since the Cardinals were represented at this prestigious event.  Both men’s and women’s teams placed 8th overall.

 

The Women’s Medley Relay of sophomore Maddie Zeigler, junior Liz Collins, senior Alina Hall and junior Saskia Kroesen took silver the silver medal with a time of 1:53.62

 

Senior captain and Air Force Academy-bound Angus MacDonald placed 4th over in the individual scores. MacDonald’s 200 yard Freestyle  performance earned him a bronze medal with a time of 1:41.95 set a school record as well earned him an ALL AMERICAN Consideration time. MacDonald also captured the gold medal in his is signature event, the 100 yard Butterfly in another ALL AMERICAN Consideration time of 51.36.

 

Other top finalists were captains Alina Hall (8th, 200IM) and senior Sam Ellis (4th, 50Free, 8th, 100Free) and junior Liz Collins bronze medal in the 100 yard ****** Stroke.

 

The meet was capped off with a repeat School record-breaking performance by the Mens 4 X 100 Freestyle Relay of Angus MacDonald, Ryan Dougherty, Carey Natoli and Sam Ellis with the new mark of 3:19.95. MacDonald’s 100 yard free style lead off leg would have smashed his school record with a new time of 46.82, another all American consideration performance.

 

The Cardinals will enter the WMPSSDL Championships to challenge more records and local teams. Their final regular season meet will be against rival Bishop O’Connell Wednesday February 10th @ Holton Arms 7:30pm for SENIOR NIGHT.  The evening has the added spice of a coaching rivalry between Ireton’s Coach John Gullickson and half brother Evan Stiles at Bishop O’Connell.