The men’s and women’s swim teams fought hard against the Catholic Cardinals, but ended up falling short.
The Cardinals, whose men’s team is the returning conference champions and women’s team is the returning conference runner-ups, is aiming for double champions at this year’s conference meet. Etown junior Katie Midura knew coming into this meet it was a matter of personal achievements and a focus on personal team bests.
“Catholic is a very tough team to swim against and is always a very mentally challenging meet for us,” she said. “But, we all held our own and focused on ourselves and what we needed to accomplish going into our mid-season invite.”
Senior Kaylee Blair of the Lady Jays took home the lone win for the team. She won the 500-free in a time of 5:34.17, six seconds ahead of Catholic’s top swimmer in the field. The win ranks Blair seventh in the Landmark Conference in the event so far. However, other relays and individuals put up good fights against the Cardinals to snag second or third place finishes.
The 200-medley relay squad of first-year Emma Paul, first-year Katarina Linde, Blair and senior Emma Sabalaske posted a strong second-place finish in a time of 1:59.73. Senior Hailey Poulos snagged a second place finish in the 1000-freestyle, while teammate Midura took third place.
Three more second place finishes were claimed by the Lady Jays throughout the meet. Blair took second in the 200-butterfly, Paul took second in the 200-backstroke and Linde took second in the 200-breaststroke.
Midura, Poulos and Sabalaske would claim third-place in their respective events. The Lady Jays tallied a total of 67 points to the Cardinal’s 188 points.
Even with the team being smaller than previous years, Midura sees an aspect of family in this year’s team. “We all come in everyday ready to work hard and hoping to have some great achievements as a team,” she said.
On the men’s side, senior Austin Smith grabbed the lone win for the team in the 100-yard butterfly with a two-second win over Catholic’s swimmer. This time currently places him eleventh in the Landmark Conference in the event.
Sophomore Barron Bishop felt the team stood well against Catholic’s swim squad.
“I feel like the team did pretty well not letting Catholic get in our heads,” he said. “We just swam our own races, especially seeing how big their team is.”
Bishop was on the 200-medley relay with senior Leif Hoffman, Smith and sophomore Marco Niosi that placed second in a time of 1:40.89, ranking them fourth in the conference. Hoffman would also swim in the 1000-freestyle, 100-backstroke and 200-backstroke and capture second in all three events.
Bishop would also come back and claim second in the 200-breaststroke. Senior Garren McKenzie narrowly claimed third in the 100-breaststroke, finishing just two-hundredths of a second behind Catholic’s James Caldwell.
The Blue Jays will swim one more time before the winter break, then will resume swimming in Mid-January to gear up for the Landmark Conference Championships on Feb. 12 in Baltimore, Maryland.
