Mount St. Joseph Academy wrapped up the regular season schedule in swimming in the traditional manner, by facing familiar rival Gwynedd Mercy Academy in an Athletic Association of Catholic Academies dual meet.

Both teams use the Arcadia University pool as their home venue, and this year it was the Mount Magic's turn to serve as the designated host.

At the outset, the Mount gained a 12-2 lead in the team score in the 200-yard medley relay, then went on to win seven of the first nine events. Leading 95-45 at that stage, the Mount swam on an exhibition basis in the last two events, collecting no additional points as the final score settled in at 95-70.

The Mount was unable to stage a league dual meet against Nazareth Academy which, like the Magic, defeated all of the other AACA squads. It's likely that the Mount would've defeated the Pandas, whose victory over Gwynedd wasn't secured until the final event of their meet. 

In the medley relay that opened last Monday's meet against Gwynedd, the Magic took first place in one minute, 56.43 seconds with the quartet of sophomore Maya McCottry, freshman Rose Schmidt, junior Amanda Conti, and senior Lauren O'Malley. Second place went to another MSJ quartet, freshman Sara Burman, senior Grace Yaegel, sophomore Anna Fedders, and senior Sarah Powell.

For Gwynedd, sophomore Bella Juarez, junior Sam Yuen, sophomore Ella McManus, and senior Madelyn Markey placed third. The Monarchs' mainstay, senior Brynn Romberger, won the next event, the 200 freestyle, in 1:59.09. Mount freshman Katie Scanlon was second with a PR of 2:04.94, and senior Leah McCottry was third with her best time this season.

Mount St. Joe's Conti would win both the 50 free (25.26) and the 100 free (in 54.62, her best time this season). In the 50, O'Malley was second for the Magic, and third went to the Monarchs' Markey. In the 100 it was Markey in second, and MSJ's Scanlon in third.

In between came the 100 butterfly, where Romberger rolled, winning for GMA in 1:01.50. In second was Leah McCottry of the Mount (with her best time in 2022), and Gwynedd's MacManus was third.

Earlier, the Mount had picked up its first individual victory thanks to Schmidt, who won the 200 individual medley in 2:26.03. She led an MSJ sweep in the race, with Yaegel placing second and Maya McCottry third.

The Magic also swept the top three spots in the 500 free, where Powell won in 5:56.91. In second and third, respectively, were seniors Olivia Forti and Nora Blatney.

O'Malley led off for a Mount victory in the 200 freestyle relay, where she was followed by junior Kathryn Sponseller, Scanlon, and Conti to produce a time of 1:44.90. Gwynedd was second with sophomore Amanda Murray, Yuen, McManus, and Romberger, while the Magic had Forti, junior Julia Solecki, Fedders, and Leah McCottry finish third.

It was one-two for the Mounties in the 100 backstroke, where Maya McCottry won in 1:06.10 and Schmidt was the runner-up. Third went to Gwynedd's Juarez.

Now ahead by 50 in the team score, Mount St. Joseph chose to forego any more points in the meet, swimming off-the-record in the 100 breaststroke and the 400 freestyle relay.

Since the Arcadia pool is not set up with a board, there was no diving competition as part of the meet. However, MSJ senior Anna Grace Johnsson had already met the District 1 qualifying standard earlier in the season.

At present, none of the Mount St. Joseph seniors have concrete plans to swim in college, but two of them have signed with collegiate crew programs. McCottry will row for Gonzaga University, and Powell for the University of Tennessee.

After the COVID-curtailed season of 2020-21, the Magic swimmers were happy to be engaged in a more regular aquatic campaign this winter.

"They were excited to get back to a sense of normalcy," said longtime Mount head coach Janet Tompkins. "It was a pleasure to coach such a nice group of girls."