Notre Dame Irish vs. Miami (OH) Redhawks
- Friday, October 11, 2024
- Rolfs Aquatic Center, South Bend, Indiana
- Short Course Yards (25 yards), no diving
- Full Results (PDF)
- Team Scores
- Women: HM Notre Dame 180 – Miami 82
While the Notre Dame men are currently serving a suspension of “at least a year,” the women’s team kicked off their season on Friday with a 98 point win over the Miami Redhawks at home.
The Irish women are in rebuilding mode after an 8th place finish at last year’s ACC Championship meet, and they took a big step forward on Friday with big contributions from newcomers on their roster.
Of the 8 individual Notre Dame wins in the meet, 4 came from newcomers.
That included a pair from freshman Carli Cronk, who SwimSwam ranked as a “Best of the Rest” recruit in the class. Cronk comes to Notre Dame as a Deaf Swimming World Record holder.
She won the 200 free in 1:50.49 to record her first collegiate victory in an event where she was the high school state champion last season. She came back later to win the 500 free in 4:58.39.
Cronk is a versatile performer who could contribute to Notre Dame’s efforts in both butterfly and IM events this season – and swam the butterfly leg on a 400 medley relay early in the meet.
Sophomore transfer Lainey Mullins picked up her first win for the Irish, winning the 200 fly in 2:02.51. Mullins, from Delaware, spent her freshman season at Virginia, ultimately not swimming any best times and being left off the Cavaliers’ roster for the ACC Championships. Her high school best was 1:57.0.
Another freshman, Hollie Widdows, won the 50 free in 23.16.
Combined with returning nine of their top 10 scorers from last year’s ACC Championship meet, Notre Dame appears early on to be on an upward trajectory, though some of those top returners weren’t at their best. Megan Deuel, who scored at ACCs in the 200 fly last year, was 2:06.44 for 4th on Friday, while Madelyn Christman won the 200 back in 2:01.75, which is her slowest recorded time in over four years. Christman was 5th in that race at ACCs last year and 37th at the NCAA Championships.
Christman looked good in her relay swims, though, so that’s a shift worth watching as the season goes on.
Maggie Graves, another returning NCAA Championship qualifier, won the 1000 free in 10:16.42.
Notre Dame also won the 400 medley relay (3:44.81) thanks in part to a 53.81 fly split from the freshman Widdows; and then won again late in the 200 free relay (1:32.72).
Miami, meanwhile, swept the breaststroke races on the day with contributions from two different winners. First, in the 100, sophomore Natalie Gilson won in 1:04.79, which is almost two seconds better than she was in her opener last season.
Then in the 200 breaststroke, Polish freshman Zofia Janaszek-Seydilitz won in 2:21.72.
Miami is under the new leadership of Samantha Pitter, who took over the program when former head coach Hollie Bonewit-Cron left to take over the program at Penn State. Pitter comes over from Pitt and brought with her as an assistant coach former Pitt standout Flynn Crysci – a breaststroker – correlating to the team’s early success in the breaststroke races.
