WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Catholic University women's swimming & diving team earned a tough meet victory over Randolph-Macon Saturday at the DuFour Center Pool. After narrowly losing to the Yellow-Jackets this season in an invitational meet, the Cardinals came out on top with a 144-118 win in their final home meet of the season.
Randolph-Macon took first in the Yellow Jacket Invitational out of eight teams with 1563 points on December 1, 2018. Catholic was the second-place team in that invitational, falling just short with 1561 points. The Cardinals took the top spot in the rematch, though, to improve their dual-meet record to 6-1 on the year.
Catholic's freshmen shined in a complete team performance. Cagney Boyle led the way with three individual first-place finishes. The Springfield, N.J. native won the 100-backstroke (1:13.43), 200-breaststroke (2:36.84), and the 200-IM (2:19.69) to gift her team 27 points on the afternoon.
Freshman Angela Castano also played a big role in the result with two wins and two second-place finishes against the Yellow Jackets. Her 26.72 split in the opening 200-medley relay helped Catholic take second in the meet's first event. The Allentown, PA native then touched first in the 50-freestyle sprint with a 25.77 time, and got second in the 100-butterfly (1:03.09).
Castano (26.55) swam first in the final relay event, the 200-freestyle, and combined with Caroline Beal (26.04), Megan Leibfreid (25.78), and Rachael Zarlinski (26.02) for a 1:44.39 winning time to close the meet.
Fellow freshman Kate Von Heeringen also gave her team two victories in the freestyle events. She took the top spot in the 200-freestyle (2:04.03) and 100-freestyle (57.56) for 18 points. Bridget Roach contributed a win of her own in the 200-backstroke with a 2:19.73 time.
Before the meet, the women's team honored its senior swimmers - Mary Margaret Deedrick, Kallie Farley, Emily Messina, Pippa Rogers, Valerie Sander, and Zarlinski. Deedrick, Farley, Messina, and Rogers teamed up to swim as a senior unit in the 200-freestyle relay for the meet's final event. Zarlinski contributed her 26.02 split to win that event, and also added a couple third-place finishes in the 200-medley relay and the 50-freestyle (26.60).
On the boards, Colleen O'Callaghan and Mackenzie Earley led the efforts in the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events. O'Callaghan scored a 121.95 in the 1-meter and a 112.05 in the 3-meter. Earley followed with 107.25 (1-meter) and 117.60 (3-meter) scores. Sophia Washington earned an 71.15 score in the 1-meter event.
Up next for Catholic is a local road meet against Division I opponent Howard University. The Cardinals compete at Howard for a 1 p.m. meet on Saturday, January 26.
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