Mount St. Dominic pair lead All SEC American honors

The Mount St. Dominic girls basketball team had quite a 2025-26 season which might have been two sides of a coin.

The Lions finished with a 15-12 record and Mount St. Dominic was knocked out in the quarterfinals of both the Essex County and state tournaments.

For Mount St. Dominic what was even more impressive was that the team was able to regroup midseason after the departure of head coach Brian Dorflaufer.

But behind acting head coach Kyle Ramseur, the young Lions went 7-5 and showed an extra spark during the final weeks of the season that included almost upsetting Arts and DePaul in the county and state tournaments respectively.

Two of the players who were credited for the success this past season were junior Bella Iannitelli and sophomore Gia McArdle. Both were named to the All Super Essex Conference American Division first team. The American is the top division in the SEC.

Along with Iannitelli and McArdle, freshman Hailey Root was placed on the All SEC American second team. Both sophomore Izzy DeLorenzo and freshman Sofia Gonzalez were part of the All SEC American honorable mention list.

All of these players have one thing in common is that they will be returning for the 2026-27 season.

And two of the best played games this season for the Lions were both defeats that could easily turn into victories next season with a more seasoned squad.

Mount St. Dominic was a minute away from reaching the Essex County Tournament semifinal before falling 40-37 to Arts in the quarterfinals on Feb. 7. McArdle had 17 points and 11 rebounds as the sixth-seeded Lions almost stunned third seeded Arts.

And then in the state tournament, Mount St. Dominic came back instead of laying down when the Lions were almost down 20 points at DePaul in the Non-Public North B state quarterfinals.

Mount St. Dominic came all the way back to make it a five-point difference in the waning minutes. Unfortunately the Lions ran out of time.

While it was McArdle leading the way against Arts, it was Iannitelli who propelled the comeback against DePaul. The junior had one of her best results for the season with 26 points and 16 boards.

In terms of McArdle she was one of the top scorers in Non-Public basketball with 20 points per game. And Iannitelli was also one of the top rebounders in the Non-Public in averaging a little more than 10 a contest.

Indoor Track and Field

The Mount St. Dominic indoor track and field team made some progress this season compared to the 24-25 indoor season as the spring track and field season is around the corner.

Lions head indoor track and field coach Joe Lee was happy with how the winter track and field season went these past months.

"I think the winter season went great, it was a good time to learn events," said Lee. "We had a fair amount of success particularly the Super Essex meet where we had eight point scorers compared to one the previous winter."

In the Super Essex Conference meet, the relay and field events had the best results.

Junior Lily Garbo had the best result with a third in the high jump with a mark of 4-feet-2-inches. Another junior, Madeleine Williams, was right behind Garbo in fourth place with also a jump of 4-feet-2 inches. The Mount St. Dominic relay team came in fourth place in the 1,600-meter relay with a time of 4:45.71.

And senior Janiyah Dunmore was third in the shot put with a throw of 25-feet-11.5.

For the indoor season Mount St. Dominic had 19 student athletes. And now with the start of spring track and field, it increases to 36 student athletes.