BOYDS, Md. — The Catholic University women's swimming and diving team won its third championship in the last four seasons in thriller fashion on Sunday night, redeeming itself after a tight loss last year.
The final night of championships provided wildly entertaining viewing, with the winner not being decided until the final event—the 400 free relay—was complete.
With two events remaining, Tyler Ziegler's team had a lead of greater than 50 points over Scranton, who had remained closest to the Cardinals all weekend. However, the Royals had five swimmers qualify through to the A Final of the last individual event, the 200 butterfly, while Catholic only had one A Finalist.
With Scranton ready to close the points gap, Angele Parral provided a clutch swim, securing a second-place finish. The freshman produced the race of her career to date, clocking in at 2:12.06, nearly two seconds faster than her prelim time and over four seasons faster than her personal best prior to the day. She played a vital role in not allowing the Royals to pick up maximum points in the event.
Catholic then secured its title in style, winning the 400 free relay.
With the championship on the line, the Cardinal quartet of Ava Snyder, Shannon Raue, Emma Gould and Katie Herman came up with the goods when it mattered. The relay was close throughout, with Catholic trailing after the first two legs. It was Gould who brought the Cardinals within a body length before handing it over to Herman, who made no mistake, coming home in 51.23, far and away the fastest split in the race.
Herman also flew to individual victory in the 100 free. Her blistering time of 51.16 broke the meet record, the conference record and a program record while accounting for her second NCAA B Cut of the weekend.
The Cardinals picked up some vital points earlier in the night with strong performances in the 200-yard backstroke. Catholic went two-three-four in the event as Maura Sadowski (2:08.92), Alexa Hipp (2:11.41) and Emily Albans (2:12.55) all touched in quick succession.
Catholic had four swimmers in the 1650 distance freestyle A Final as Snyder grabbed silver with a time of 17:53.64. Caitlin Heise touched fourth before Kathryn O'Hara and Emma Ruffo finished seventh and eighth.
Bella Mugno finished off a strong week with another podium finish, swimming a personal-best 2:27.80 to earn bronze in the 200-yard breaststroke.
After earning NCAA B Cuts in both the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events, Herman was named Landmark Conference Rookie of the Year. The impressive freshman can enjoy the championship while she waits to find out if she will have the opportunity to compete at the NCAA DIII Swimming and Diving Championships scheduled for March 15-18 in Greensboro, N.C.
