Mount Saint Joseph puts on magical performance at Wissahickon

LOWER GWYNEDD >> It’s always a question how a team will perform coming out of its winter training, but Mount Saint Joseph provided an answer quickly on Thursday afternoon.

The Magic began their non-league meet with Wissahickon with a solid 200-yard medley relay and then had multiple swimmers gliding to the wall in several events.

“We had some great swims,” Mount coach Janet Tompkins said. “They’ve been working hard. The weather at the beginning of January was killing me, but we’re getting back into a groove again.

“I was pretty happy with it. I knew Wissahickon had some strong girls and we were gonna need to use our depth a lot.”

Mount, in its first meet since before the holidays, put a tremendous effort together and came away with a 97-88 victory over the Trojans.

“I do (like where they’re at),” Tompkins said, “and I’m looking forward to seeing how they gear up heading towards the championship meets in early February. They should have a nice base to build off of because they’ve been working really hard.”

Bryn McLaughlin, Taylor Dragonosky, Hailey Goodyear and Kristen O’Connor got it going, taking the medley relay in 1 minute, 54.41 seconds.

Dragonosky was just getting started.

She swam to a first-place finish in the 200 IM, touching in 2:14.98, and then she later outraced everyone in the 100 breast, finishing in 1:07.72 for her third win of the day overall.

Maggie Mikalic outlasted all other competition in the 500 free for another win for the Magic. Mount bunched together a lot of seconds and thirds, which was essential given how Wiss was coming on strong.

“So many great swims,” Trojans coach Laurie Hug said. “We saw the depth (the Magic) have this year and I told the team it’s a long shot and we’re underdogs, so let’s go.

“Julia Weiss got her district cut in the 500 so we were excited. They’re in the middle of midterms so they’re mentally fried, they’re physically fried, so we were happy with the way they swam today.”

Wiss came into this one a sparkling 3-0-1 competing at their shiny new digs.

“This was our first loss in this pool,” Hug said with a smile, “so we were really hoping to win. Girls were doing best times or just off. I’m excited to see what they do once they’re shaved and tapered.”

Karis Kim had quite an afternoon for Wiss (4-2-1).

She won the 200 free in 1:58.49, took the 100 free in 54.98, and anchored both the 200 free and 400 free relays to victory.

Carly Zlotnikoff was first in the 50 free for Wiss, touched first in the 100 back and led off the first-place 200 free foursome. Katie Sapozhnikov was a winner in the 100 for the Trojans and led off the winning 400 free.

“Lots of close races,” Hug said. “(Mount) came out ahead on some of them but if we’re doing fast times, that’s what matters.”

Wiss hosts Cheltenham Tuesday in a Suburban One League American Conference meet. The Trojans are currently 1-1-1 in the conference, having defeated Springfield Montco, tied Hatboro-Horsham and lost to Upper Dublin.

The Magic are in action again Tuesday, against Villa Joseph Marie in a Catholic Academies League meet.