Catholic Swimming and Diving Against Scranton

Image courtesy of Catholic University Athletics Department

By Claire Prudhomme

The Catholic University Swimming and Diving team treaded through hard waters against Scranton in the DuFour Center pool. On Saturday, October 26th, the men’s swimming, and diving team won against the Scranton Royals with a cumulative score of 187-101 and the girls fell short a win with a score of 166-127.

Both the men’s and women’s teams opened the meet with a second-place finish for the 200 medley relay. The men’s relay team, sophomore Jeffrey Flores, junior Chris Grunbok, seniors Kevin Jay and George Isaacs earned their final relay time of 1:39.25 and four points for the men’s team. For the women’s team, sophomore Megan Leibfried, freshman Madeline Doucette, senior Emily Tighe, and freshmen Emma Gould worked together to earn a final relay time of 1:54.74 and four points for the women’s team.

Freshman Ellis Prescott and sophomore Kelly Smith both won first place in the 1000-freestyle event for their teams. Prescott continued his winning streak in this event from the last meet where he won the 1000-free as well.

Junior Matthew Mahon and Gould touched first for the 200-freestyle race. Mahon finishing with a final time of 1:50.29 and Gould finishing with a final time of 2:03.10. The men’s team also earned the top three spots in the 100-freestyle and freshman Mary Pilkington took first place in the 500-freestyle.

Junior Nellie Adams dove on the 1-meter diving board and earned two points from her final score of 91.20. Senior Will Chester won first place off the 1-meter and 3-meter boards with final points of 200.35 and 207.30. 

Leibfried, a high school all-state and all-district swimmer, swims the back and freestyle stroke. Like a lot of her teammates, she doesn’t only swim for a personal record or to win a meet but for their former teammate.

“A motto we’ve had since last year is ‘fly high.’ Our teammate passed away last year during winter break,” Leibfried said. “When we do our cheers, we always say fly high at the end just to remind us that we’re swimming for something much larger than ourselves now.” 

Leibfried also said that the team draws “CC,” the initials of their late teammate, on their arms and chests  to know that he is with them during their races.