At the 2025 Athletic Association of Catholic Academies Swimming and Diving Championships last Sunday, the Mount St. Joseph Magic were far behind on the scoreboard before the first swimmer could start to race.

The diving competition preceded the swimming events in Sunday's meet at the Upper Dublin High School facility. The Mount has no divers on its team this winter, and its closest rival, Villa Maria, is well stocked with springboard talent.

Villa dominated the diving event, so much so that when the swimmers began to compete, the Mounties trailed the Hurricanes 91-0. The Magic, who won all of their regular-season meets in the league this year, made up that deficit and kept on going. Outscoring Villa 599 to 514.5 in the final team points tally, the Mount won the AACA title for the seventh year in a row.

Gwynedd Mercy Academy finished third in the team standings with 302.5 points, followed by Merion Mercy, with 200, Villa Joseph Marie, with 195, and Sacred Heart Academy, with 99.

This year, a notable individual streak played a role in Mount St. Joe's continued team success. Senior Rose Schmidt emerged from Sunday's meet as the league's four-time champion in both the 100 yard breast stroke (winning time 1:07.11 this year) and in the individual medley (2:17.52). She is headed to Bucknell University, where she will play a sport that is not offered in the Academies League, water polo.

Before her individual successes last weekend, Schmidt was in the water for the first race of the day as she swam the second leg in the 200 yard medley relay won by the Mount (1:52.94). Sophomore Grace Detwiler led off and gained a lead the Magic would never relinquish. After Schmidt's section, freshmen Sierra Martin and Kada McCottry finished it out.

Villa Maria's Gwen Devenney won the initial individual event, the 200 yard freestyle, hitting the wall in 1:56.67 while Mount senior Katie Scanlon placed second in 1:57.29. The Magic still came away with a lot of points overall as fourth, fifth, and sixth place went to senior Zoe Truitt, sophomore Emma Gladulich, and junior Ava Downey, respectively.

Schmidt's triumph in the IM came next, and MSJ fans saw freshman Ava DiEnno become the runner-up while junior Maddie Dudley was fifth, freshman Natalie Albertelli was sixth, and sophomore Charli Schoen came in seventh.

Mount freestyle sprinter Kelly McDonald, a junior, was out sick on Sunday, but the Mount still had good depth in that area. The 50 free was won by Villa's Hailey Rittenhouse (24.68 seconds), but third place was earned by Schoen's freshman sister, Lexi, and fifth went to her classmate, Martin. The Schoen sisters are graduates of Norwood Fontbonne Academy.

In the next contest it was Merion Mercy's time to shine, as two of the Golden Bears tied for first place in a time of 1:00.37. McCottry headed up the Mount St. Joseph contingent with a third-place outcome, and the Magic scooped up fifth, sixth, and seventh courtesy of Martin, Truitt, and Dudley.

A time of 53.45 seconds won the 100 freestyle for Villa's Rittenhouse, but second and third went to the Mount's Scanlon and Lexi Schoen. The Hurricanes' other star freestyler, Devenney, captured the gold medal in the 500 yard event (5:17.95). The Mounties still collected a good number of points, as McCottry clinched second place just ahead of Detwiler, with Downey landing in the seventh spot.

The top spot in the 200 freestyle relay went to Villa Maria (1:40.71), and less than a second behind in second place were the Magic's Lexi Schoen, Dudley, Detwiler, and Scanlon.

Detwiler came right back in the next race to win the 100 yard backstroke (1:02.37), with Gladulich taking third. Mount ninth-graders Alexa Zochowski and Olivia Jacquinto added points by taking ninth and 10th place.

In the breast stroke, Schmidt led a one-two-three sweep for the Mounties, backed up by Charli Schoen and DiEnno. The younger Truitt sister, Ally (a junior), placed sixth here.

Wrapping up the meet, Villa Maria's freestylers were victorious in the 400 yard relay (3:42.06). The Mount still wound up well ahead in the team standings, despite spotting Villa 91 points at the outset in the diving competition.

Securing second place in the final relay, the Magic spanned the age spectrum, with freshmen Schoen and McCottry performing the first two legs, and seniors Schmidt and Scanlon closing it out.