On Thursday, Feb. 25th, the Cabrini Monarchs traveled to Riverview Community Schools new aquatic center for a dual meet against the Riverview Pirates. Both teams turned in exceptional performances but when the battle was over, the strength of the Pirate harriers was too much to handle for the Monarchs. The team score ended up Riverview 115 Cabrini 52.
The Monarchs tallied 10 season best and 14 personal best swims for the evening. The highlights for the Monarchs began with 4 season best splits in the 200 Medley Relay from Juniors Lily Heath and Kyra Roth, Senior Thomas Day and Freshman Drew Bylow. Next up in the 200 Freestyle, Senior Riley Bonar scored a personal best crushing her old mark by over 14 seconds. The Monarchs scored their first event victory with a one, two, five finish in the 50 Freestyle from Day, Bylow and Heath, who each turned in a season best time. The 100 Freestyle was the next event where the Monarchs scored two more season bests from Day and Sophomore Christopher Russelburg.
In the 500 Freestyle, Sophomore Marin Genaw turned in a personal best time and a 4th place finish. In the 200 Freestyle Relay the teams of Seniors Brendan Fix, Riley Bonar, Alana Maffesoli, Pratham Patel and Roth, Junior Lauren Schulte, Sophomore Tayler Bonarm and Genaw finished second and third respectively. Next in the 100 Backstroke, Bylow and Heath both jumped into the pool for their final individual events of the season and brought home a personal best and season best time respectively, with Bylow setting a pool record and scoring his second state cut time for the season. Fix finished the individual events for the Monarchs with a personal best swim in the 100 Breaststroke. In the final event of the evening, the Monarchs 400 Freestyle Relay team of Day, Heath, Fix and Bylow finished second with one final PR swim from Fix.
The entire meet was a rollercoaster ride for the team and the coaching staff with so many great swims in one evening. It's proof that all the work being put in during the practice week is paying dividends in the competition pool. We have always swam well in Riverview's old pool. It looks like the "mojo" has moved into the new Riverview aquatic center for us. It will continue to be a facility we look forward to competing at in the future. It was also gratifying to see Bylow, a student from Monroe St. Mary's Catholic Central, part of the co-op between the two schools, set the first pool record of his high school career while gaining another state cut. The season has gone by so fast, with only two more weeks left in the regular season. We are banking on the hard work and positive attitude to keep us performing at a high level helping us set up our post season taper. Time will tell the story. No matter what happens, It was a great day to be a Monarch!!
