The Notre Dame Girls Varsity Swim team placed 13th at the Oakland County Championship meet held at Lake Orion High School. The Irish placed ahead of Troy, Troy Athens, Rochester, Clarkston and many others with several more swimmers. Each swimmer had season best times and four had lifetime best times.
relay came out with State Cut times, dropping several seconds to do so. The 200 Freestyle Relay dropped six seconds to make the cut. “We were just hoping to come close at this point in the season,” Coach McGreevy said. “Six seconds is a lot to ask for in a short race.” When the race was over, Libby Stacey, Allison Healy, Bella Vecchio and Josi Honoway dropped over seven seconds to take 16th place. The 400 Free Relay took 14th place, dropping nearly eight seconds with a time of 3:49.98 while the Medley Relay turned in a time of 1:54.06, dropping nearly two seconds.
“This puts us in a real good place looking ahead to the State Meet. It takes the pressure of the team and lets us concentrate on individual cuts,” said the coach. Stacey had two season best performances as she prepares to get cuts in the 50 and 100 Freestyle. Ranked 40th in the 50, Stacey dropped over a second to steal 28th place at 25.82 while 20th ranked Sophomore Alina Stanczak sprinted into 7th place with a time of 24.56, getting her within striking distance of the school record set by Rhianna Hensler.
Vecchio and Healy had career-best performances. Healy broke the one minute mark in the 100 Freestyle, an accomplishmentthat has been eluding her for four years, with a split of 59.67. Honoway, ranked 22nd in the 100 Breaststroke, blazed her way to 17th place finish with a lifetime best of 1:10.53 to beat her season best by two seconds. The icing on the cake was Stanczak's performance in the 100 Backstroke. Ranked in 11th at the start of the meet, Stanczak dropped four seconds to touch the wall at 58.52, taking third place.
"This was one of those great moments in swimming. To watch all of them drop so much and see the confidence grow with each race. It’s just a fantastic thing to see. I was so proud of them. It’s good to see their hard work pay off. And we are only halfway through the season.”