By: Kristy Booher Angelo, Associate Athletic Director
For More Info: booherk@gilmour.org
Gilmour Academy hosted the North Coast League (NCL) Swimming Championship and welcomed eight other schools to Lancer Natatorium to battle it out for league supremacy. Walsh Jesuit earned both the girls and boys team titles, but only by a very narrow margin on the girls side. The Lancer girls were just two points shy from tying the champions, thus earning the distinction of NCL Runners-Up.
The Lancer girls totaled four first-place finishes on the way to amassing 104 points. The big highlight of the day came in the 100 breaststroke as Cate O'Haimhirgin '20 not only won the race, but did so in record time. Her time of 1:04.80 set a new pool record, as well as a new meet record.
"It was a great feeling to set a meet and pool record even though it was a little bit bittersweet given that it was my last meet as a Lancer in the Gilmour pool," said O'Haimhirgin. "It's super cool to feel like I've left my mark at this pool that I've spent so many hours swimming in and it's nice to have a legacy to leave behind. I have a little sister who's currently in 7th grade that wants to come swim at Gilmour in high school, and even though we won't be on the team together, it would make me happy to see her name on the record board with mine in a few years."
And even though O'Haimhirgin was psyched to add her name to the record board, she was quick to point out the overall efforts of her teammates.
"I think the team fought really hard for the title, so obviously we were a little bit disappointed, but I also think this is going to put some fire in our bellies for the postseason," said O'Haimhirgin. "Overall it was a great team effort and I think everyone performed well especially considering how hard we have been working in the past couple of weeks."
Other first-place finishes for Gilmour came in all three relays, which included the 200 medley relay team of Kylee Radigan '22, O'Haimhirgin, Abby Meyer '21 and Grace Valenza '20; the 200 free relay team of O'Haimhirgin, Lacie Frech '23, Anna Frank '20 and Radigan; and the 400 free relay team of Valenza, Taylor Markowski '22, Frank and Meyer.
The Lancer boys earned a fourth-place team finish. Matt Vanone '20 won two events, including the 100 fly and the 50 free. He was also a part of the 200 medley relay team that took second and the 200 free relay that took third along with Andrew Lewis '23, Deaglan Bryant '23 and Alex Figurella '22.
#GoGA #WeAreGilmour