History was made this weekend when the Cabrini Women’s Swim Team won their first ever AMCC Championship in the team’s 10-year history. “I think this champion means everything, not just for me, but for the girls and for Cabrini,” said Head coach Cindy Ikeler, ”It is the first any Cabrini swim team, men or women, has won a title.”
Day one of the AMCC’s the lady cavs were creating waves and turning heads from the very first event. Two records were broken in the first day. Freshmen Christina Melchiorre, junior Morgan Griffith and senior Courtney Good were part of both record-breaking relays. In the 200 free relay Melchiorre, Griffith and Good were joined by senior Breaghann Smith and in the 400 medley they were joined by junior Meagan Kalinoski for the two broken records.
“From the moment the meet started we knew what we had to do to win,” junior Megan Tustin said. “And we were prepared to show everyone what we had worked for all season.” As day one came to a close Cabrini lead the meet at 73 points followed behind with Penn State Behrend at 48, Franciscan University at 44, Penn State Altoona at 39 and University of Pitt Bradford at 32.
The 200 freestyle relay of Melchiorre, Griffith, Good and Smith also qualified for the ESAC’s where the girls will be attempting to break the AMCC record that they missed by only .13 seconds during day one.
Day two came at the crack of dawn where the team arrived an hour earlier then any other team at the pool to warm up and prepare to hold their lead for the coming day. Senior Courtney Good started off the day with a 2nd place overall in the 400 individual medley with a time of 5:07. Melchiorre dominated in the 200 freestyle with a 2:01.06, not only placing first in the AMCC’s but also breaking the Cabrini’s 200 free record of 2:03.03 and the AMCC record of 2.01.99. On the final event of the day junior Morgan Griffith broke Cabrini’s 100 backstroke record of 1:02.81 and placed 3rd overall in the AMCC’s. Cabrini led with 156 points at the end of day two with the closing team being Penn State Behrend trailing at 117.
The third and final day started off with another AMCC and Cabrini record being broken by Melchiorre in the 100 freestyle with a time of 54.97. Next came another relay record being broken by Melchiorre, Griffith, Good and Smith in the 400 free relay “During every race I knew I had to leave everything I had in the pool,” Melchiorre said, “even though we knew we were winning we never got laid back during the meet.”
Moving onto the longest of all events in swimming the 1650 freestyle was crushed by seniors Breaghann Smith and Elyse Phillips who scored first and second in AMCC’s while freshmen Allie Stein came right behind her fellow teammates at third. With the conclusion of the third and final day the Cabrini Women’s swim team had not only made history but had scored 243 points, broken 8 records and scored 9 first places out of 18 events.
Overall the team accomplished more in this season then in its 10-year history. With the end of this season comes the loss of 4 senior girls. “Our four senior girls will be hard to replace,” said Head coach Cindy Ikeler, “but we will bring in the right people to keep us on top of the conference, because now that we are there I plan on keeping us there.”
