The final competition of the 2021 – 2022 Boys Swim & Dive season took place on March 4th and 5th at Waterford Kettering and the Cabrini Monarchs did not disappoint! After training hard since Thanksgiving, the team enjoyed the reprieve of taper, but then exploded in their final races. Seven teams represented their schools at the final meet, with no shortage of talent on that pool deck. While the competition was fierce, the Monarchs had spent months preparing for these final moments; they were physically and mentally prepared to leave it all in the pool for each of their races.

Day 1 began with two relays of Monarchs competing in the 200 Medley Relay – 7 out of 8 Monarchs earned a Personal Record in this first race; including Junior Kieran Fix dropping 4 seconds in his leg, as well as Senior Joseph Berro and Sophomore Ella Brash each dropping 2 seconds in theirs. Next in the 200 Freestyle, both Freshmen Jenny Day and Giovanni Rea dropped 15 seconds off their seed times, while Senior Lily Heath earned a season record in her race. 

To keep the momentum going, Freshman Ralph Kaleniecki swimming the 200 Individual Medley bested his previous time by 11 seconds!  Eight Monarchs competed in the 50 Freestyle, an
extremely difficult race in which to drop time. However seven of the eight competitors dropped time, including Sophomore Tyler Noah who dropped 6 seconds.  In the next two individual events, six Monarchs earned personal records, Freshman Mia Rossman in the 100 Butterfly, Juniors Kyndel Gargarello, Marin Genaw and Fix and Freshmen Jack Fitzgerald and Kaleniecki, in the 100 Freestyle. Remarkably, Fix dropped 16 seconds in his race!

Next up was the 500 Freestyle, a grueling race of 20 laps by a single athlete. Each Monarch entered in the event dropped significant time and earned a personal best time – Junior Chris Russelburg dropped 25 seconds, Heath 5 seconds, and Sophomore Drew Bylow dropped 4 seconds to swim a 4:58.31 (the first time he completed the race in under 5 minutes). In the final two individual events of the evening eight athletes earned a personal record, with significant time drops. In the 100 Backstroke, Day dropped 10 seconds, and in the 100 Breaststroke Berro and Rea both dropped 5 seconds, with Gargarello dropping 7 seconds. In the final event of the night, the 400 Freestyle Relay, the team of Russelburg, Fitzgerald, Day, and Rossman dropped 7 seconds off their entered time.

Day 2 of competition saw the return of the entire Cabrini Swim & Dive Team - each relay team returned to compete, as well as several athletes in individual events. To begin, the relay team of Bylow, Senior Lauren Schulte, Kaleniecki, and Russelburg placed 7th in the 200 Medley Relay, with Bylow, Schulte, and Kaleniecki earning a personal record in their leg of the race. Next in the 200 Freestyle, both Heath and Junior Taylor Bonar qualified, with Heath placing 17th and Bonar placing 24th. Kaleniecki also qualified to compete in the 200 Individual Medley and secured an 18th place finish, while in the 50 Freestyle, Bylow and Berro earned 10th and 24th respectively. 

Both Monarchs entered in the 100 Butterfly event qualified for Day 2 of competition, with Rossman placing 19th and Senior CassidyGlazier placing 20th.  Then in the 100 Freestyle, Genaw placed 24th, Bonar 23rd and Kaleniecki 21st and also earned a personal record for that swim.
 

Going into Day 2, the Monarchs were prepared for Bylow and Heath to compete in the 500, but in a last minute change, Russelburg was also selected to compete as well. At the end of those races, Russelburg placed 24th, Heath placed 18th and Bylow placed 3rd overall. Both of Cabrini’s 200 Freestyle Relays placed in the top 16 with the relay of Heath, Schulte, Bonar, and Genaw placing 6th and the relay of Gargarello, Noah, Freshman Faith Sterling, and Rea placing 15th. Each athlete in the B relay earned a personal best record as well! 

In the final two individual events of the day, seven Monarchs qualified to compete on the second day of competition. In the 100 Backstroke, Fix placed 21st, Brash 23rd and Genaw 24th . In the 100 Breaststroke, Rea placed 24th, Schulte 20th, Noah 19th and Berro 16th. 

To finish out another outstanding day of races, both 400 Freestyle Relays placed in the top 16, with the relay of Russelburg, Fitzgerald, Day, and Rossman placing 15th , and the relay of Bylow, Heath, Bonar, and Kaleniecki placing 7th . On the whole, the Cabrini Monarchs proved how much their hard work and dedication to their team paid off. In total, almost 90% of the races swam on Day 1 and over 50% on Day 2 resulted in a personal or season record.

To cap off this incredible season, Sophomore Drew Bylow will be traveling to Calvin University to compete in the 200 Freestyle and 100 Backstroke at the State Finals on March 11 – 12. Head coach Paul Lacroix gave his assistants Alysse Curtin and Victoria Shea a lot of credit, "Without them there to share their wisdom and dedication, this season wouldn't have been as successful as it was. We're a co-ed team swimming against all-boys schools, but we never backed down and just came back for more."  A truly fine job by Coach Lacroix and his staff.