Small, But Talented Lions Swimmers Take 5th At Essex County Championships

The Mount St. Dominic squad took nine swimmers into the Essex County Championships on Jan. 19 and got the most out of them to bring home fifth in the team standings.

The Lions just missed fourth place in the standings. Mount St. Dominic collected 140 points, just seven points behind fourth-place Livingston at 147 at the Jersey Aquatic Center in New Providence.

Mount St. Dominic brought home seven medals between second and three place finishes with only a squad of nine swimmers on the day against deeper county competition.

The Lions relay teams in the 200 free and the 200 medley grabbed second place in both. The Mount medley relay team of junior Sonia Jagen, freshman Noelle Rivera-Castro, freshman Ashlyn Reeber and junior Alexa Whitworth swam a time of 1:54.62, only behind Newark Academy's time of 1:48.77 in the medley relay.

In the 200 freestyle relay the Lions team fell short again of Newark Academy. The Mount foursome of Rivera-Castro, Jagen, Whitworth and Reeber also took second with a time of 1:44.49, just behind Newark Academy's 1:44.90. The lone swimmer to take second in the county meet was Reeber placed in the 500 freestyle at 5:14.43, only behind Newark Academy's Amy Jiang, 5:13.50.

Rivera-Castro also collected a pair of third-place finishes in the 100 butterfly (1.00.27) and 100 breastroke (1.10.21). In addition, Reeber and Jagen, touched the wall third in the 100 individual medley (2.11.47) and the 100 backstroke (1:03.87) respectively.

Basketball

The Mount St. Dominic girls basketball team broke a three-game losing streak on Jan. 18.
And the Lions did it in comeback fashion at the Dennis Gregory Memorial Classic at Montclair State University.

Mount St. Dominic defeated Union Catholic, 64-52, as sophomore Gia McArdle led the comeback with a game-high 24 points. The Lions (8-5) were down 16-5 after the first quarter only to turn the tables in the second quarter. Mount St. Dominic would grab the advantage at halftime, 23-22, and would never look back.

Sophomore Izzy DeLorenzo added 16 points to the Mount St. Dominic cause. The Lions junior Bella Iannitelli registered a double-double with 10 points and a dozen rebounds in the victory.

Last week, Mount St. Dominic took on another tough Group 4 school, this time Passaic Tech on Jan. 17 at Kennedy High School in Paterson.

Mount St. Dominic fell behind early and could not catch up to the Bulldogs.

The Lions were down by 12 at halftime, 27-15, and showed a comeback in the fourth quarter, but it was little too late.

Mount St. Dominic dropped their third straight in the 55-40 loss to Passaic Tech.

The trio of top Lions scorers were most of the production against the Bulldogs. McArdle led the Mount offense with 19 points. And both freshman Hailey Root and Iannitelli chipped in 10 and 8 points respectively.

Passaic Tech had eight different scorers in the contest that was the difference.

The Lions dropped a pair of Super Essex Conference American Division battles.

Mount St. Dominic started out slow against rival Glen Ridge in the Jan. 13th contest at home that was eagerly anticipated by the Lions this season. Mount St. Dominic was down 23-10 at halftime before the Lions stormed back.

Behind Iannitelli's game-high 22 points, Mount St. Dominic sliced the Ridgers lead to three, 29-26 heading into the fourth quarter. But the Lions could not close the deal in the fourth quarter.

Mount St. Dominic was trying to avenge losing to Glen Ridge three times last season. The Lions have another opportunity to beat the Ridgers, McArdle added eight points while both Root and DeLorenzo scored three points each.

And then Mount St. Dominic dropped another SEC American contest, this time to University, 59-43, in Caldwell on Jan. 15.

Again, the Lions started out slowly. The Lions found themselves down again at halftime, 27-16. Mount St. Dominic sliced the University lead to single digits, 43-36, heading into the fourth quarter. But the Lions could not catch up all the way in the end.

Iannitelli and McArdle led the Mount scoring with 16 points each. Iannitelli added eight rebounds and five assists. University just had too much depth in scoring with three players in double digits led by a game-high 20 points by Carryn Grand-Pierre.

Track and field

Mount St. Dominic girls track and field team took on the best of the Super Essex Conference Liberty Division in the SEC Indoor Championships on Jan. 10 at Ocean Breeze Track and Field in State Island, New York.

The Lions came in sixth place out of the 13 teams in the Liberty Division in the indoor meet.

Junior Lily Garbo had the best finish a third place in the high jump with a leap of 4-feet-2-inches. In addition, another junior Madeleine Williams came in fourth place, also with a mark of 4-feet-2. In addition, senior Janiyah Dunmore grabbed a fifth place in the shot put at 25-feet-11.5. Freshman Lena Nicolaidis added a sixth place in the 3200-meter run with a time of 14:21.76.

Along with Nicolaidis, sophomore Pepper Stroever grabbed a seventh-place mark in the 3200 with a time of 15:01.88.

Joining Dunmore in the shot put, there was junior Maria Belle Icasa and senior Sophia Gutierrez who took seventh and eighth place with throws of 24-feet-6 and 22-feet-6.5 respectively.