The Tartan Volleyball team defeated Bishop Ireton on Thursday, November 3 with a 3-0 win at home. The team will now play Bishop O’Connell in the WCAC Championship at 6:00 pm on Saturday, November 5 at St. John’s High School. Admission is $5. The Tartans are defending their four-time WCAC Championship title.
Go Tartans!
The Tartan Cross Country team will run in the Cross Country Private School Championship meet at 7:00 am on Saturday, November 5 at Covenant Life School.
Go Tartans!
Congratulations to the following Tartan athletes for being recognized by the WCAC for their outstanding efforts.
Field Hockey
First Team: Sydney Bruno ’18 (Offense), Anna King ’17 (Defense)
Second Team: Emily Kopp ’17 (Offense)
Honorable Mention Madison DiNino ’17, Eileen Dinn ’19, Hannah “Bryn” Strzelec ’17
Soccer
First Team: Samantha Ferguson ’18, Melanie McNamara '19
Second Team: Caroline Case ’17
Honorable Mention: Madeline Dent ’18, Amy Mortensen ’17, Mary Muldoon ’18
Volleyball
First Team: Jade Parchment ’18, Emily Ryan ’17
Second Team: Nicole Dao ’19
Third Team: Riley Parchment ’20
Honorable Mention: Gianna Carmona ’17, Jessica Falcinelli ’17, Julianna Renzi ’17
Margaret Mackinnon, a member of The Academy of the Holy Cross English department, gave a reading of her work at the College of William & Mary on Saturday, October 22. Margaret was one of two featured poets at The Poetry Society of Virginia’s “Poet Swap.”
Margaret read from her published collection of poems titled The Invented Child. She was the recipient of the Silverfish Review Press 2011 Gerald Cable Book Award “first book prize,” given to a writer who has not yet published a book of poems. Her awards include the 2014 Literary Award in Poetry from the Library of Virginia, the Richard Eberhart Poetry Prize from Florida State University, a Tennessee Williams Scholarship from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and the Graybeal-Gowen Poetry Prize from Shenandoah and Washington and Lee University. Margaret has taught at the Academy since 2000.
On Saturday, November 5, the Tartan Volleyball team defeated Bishop O’Connell in five sets to win their fifth straight Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC) championship. The Tartans had lost to O’Connell twice during the regular season. The Washington Post, noted that Coach Dave Geiser “wasn’t worried.” “We have this,” the coach told his team between sets. “We’re the better team. We’re going to win.”
The final scores for the 3-2 victory were 25-10, 21-25, 25-16, 20-25, 15-8.
On Saturday, November 12, the Holy Cross Physics Team took top honors in “Final Frontiers 2016,” a competition for elementary, middle and high school students in Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties. More than 200 students competed in six different events. Holy Cross entered two of the events, “Golf Ball Barrage” (goal: to project a golf ball over a barrier and accurately strike a target on the floor) and “Micro-Mass Tower” (goal: to construct a tower from paper and tape to support a stack of ten quarters at the greatest height).
The team of Madeline Dent ’18, Samantha Ferguson ’18, and Sharvari Puri ’18 received the Outstanding Engineering Award for the entire competition. The team of Claire Guarini ’18, Margaret Ryan ’18, and Alexandra Whittington ’18 took First Place in the Golf Ball Barrage. The team of Alexis Brugger ’17, Nora Child ’17, Madison Kelly ’17, Julianna Renzi ’17, and Aimee Weber ’17 received Fourth Place in the Micro-Mass Tower, and were finalists to receive the Outstanding Engineering Award.
The goal of the competition is to challenge students to apply physics theories to real-life situations, allowing them to used creative ways to meet the requirements. The hope is to inspire students to pursue science-related careers. The competition is sponsored by the Maryland Space Business Roundtable.
The teams were recognized during the Monday, November 14 all-school assembly.
Physics Teachers Wilson Bascom and Deirdre Garahan
with Physics Team Final Frontiers Award Winners
Outstanding Engineering Award winners:
Samantha Ferguson ’18, Sharvari Puri ’18, and Madeline Dent ’18
with Wilson Bascom and Deirdre Garahan
Emily Ryan ’17 was selected for the MaxPreps Volleyball Player of the Week in Maryland for the week of October 31-November 6, 2016. During the all-school assembly on Monday, November 14, Emily was recognized and presented with a certificate and patch.
Emily was recently recognized as a Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC) All-Conference First Team player for volleyball.
MaxPreps is an online recognition website for high school sports. The goal of the website is to cover every team, every game and every player by partnering with nearly 100,000 varsity coaches throughout the United States.
Emily Ryan ’17 with Athletic Director Lisa Schrader
and Varsity Volleyball Head Coach Dave Geiser
Emily Ryan, Grace McCrery, Madison Kelly, and Kelly Horning
sign letters to play DI sports in college.
Four Class of 2017 student athletes participated in the National Letter of Intent day on Wednesday, November 19, by officially signing to play sports at NCAA Division I colleges. The entire school gathered for a special ceremony attended by the students’ coaches and family members as well.
Kelly Horning ’17 has signed to play Division I Lacrosse at Fairfield University next year. Kelly has been a dedicated player on the Holy Cross Varsity Lacrosse team in years on the team. Besides playing Lacrosse at Holy Cross, Kelly also plays for a local area club team. In her spare time, Kelly has also been a volunteer lacrosse coach for both the Winners Lacrosse program and the Potomac Power team. Kelly is ecstatic to be playing as a Stag next year!
Madison Kelly ’17 has signed to Swim at the Division I level at Saint Louis University next year. She has been on the Academy’s Swim and Dive team since she was a freshman and was named MVP in her freshman year. In her sophomore year, Madison helped lead the team to an impressive second place overall finish in the Washington Metropolitan Private School Swimming and Diving League Championships and second place in the National Catholic Championship; Madison individually finished second in the 500 Free. Madison has led the team as captain as well. She also is a volunteer coach outside of school for the Manor Country Club. Madison is thrilled to be a part of the team as a Biliken next year!
Grace McCrery ’17 has signed to play Division I Lacrosse at Old Dominion University (ODU). Grace has been a member of the Holy Cross Varsity Lacrosse team since her freshman year and has been a strong attack player on the team. In her junior year, Grace was named to the 2016 WCAC All-Conference Third Team. Grace is looking forward to playing lacrosse at ODU next year and being a member of the “Big Blue” community!
Emily Ryan ’17 has signed to play Division I Volleyball at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Emily has been a member of the Academy’s Varsity Volleyball team since her freshman year and helped lead the team to four consecutive WCAC Championships in her time here. She was the captain of the team this year. Emily has earned many accolades in her career in volleyball including WCAC All-Conference First and Third Teams, honorable mention in the All-Met honors and Prep Volleyball’s Top 50 Juniors. Recently, Emily was named MaxPreps Player of the Week, an honor she also received in her junior year. Emily is looking forward to being a part of the Bruins community next year!
In April, Holy Cross will hold a second Signing Ceremony to honor all additional DI, DII and DIII commits.
DI Athletes with family members, coaches, and
Athletic Director Lisa Schrader
Alumna Adrianna David ’12 was recently crowned Miss Maryland USA 2017. She is currently a double-degree Theatre and Communications major at the University of Maryland. Adrianna will compete in the 2017 Miss USA pageant next summer.
Adrianna is Co-Founder of Charities Angels, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization which promotes and raises awareness at various events for charitable partners. The organization is comprised of “women committed to giving from the heart to those in need through fund raising efforts.” One charity in which Adrianna has been significantly involved is “Juliana’s Hope,” a campaign to help raise funds for The Kidney Project’s work to create a bio-artificial kidney. Adrianna’s 25-year-old cousin, Juliana Casey, has suffered from kidney disease since she was a child and is the inspiration for the charity. Adrianna has helped raise over $100,000 for the cause.
As a student at Holy Cross, Adrianna was involved in Campus Ministry and performing arts, and was on the dive team. She was also a competitive cheerleader for over 13 years. She was voted American Cheerleader Magazine’s 2011 Cheerleader of the Year.
The Miss Universe Organization uses its global grassroots reach to empower women to be self-confident and strive to be their personal best. During their reign, the titleholders are given the tools to personally and professionally enrich others by providing humanitarian efforts to affect positive change, all while developing their personal career goals.
On Wednesday, November 16, Holy Cross recognized athletes who played on Fall Sports teams. Each coach presented Most Valuable Player, Most Improved, and Tartan awards during the main program and gave individuals recognition in breakout gatherings. The event is organized by the Athletic Director Lisa Schrader and the Holy Cross Athletics Office.
Cross Country:
MVP: Grace Tarbrake ’17
Most Improved: Theresa Rogers ‘17
Tartan: Natalie Walsh ’17
Junior Varsity Field Hockey:
MVP: Katherine Rose ’20
Most Improved: Kylie Draddy ’19
Tartan: Isabella Fontana ’20
Varsity Field Hockey:
MVP: Sydney Bruno ’18
Most Improved: Jennifer Olcott ’19
Tartan: Carmen DiPippo ’17
Freshman Soccer:
MVP: Meghan Monahan ’20
Most Improved: Natalie Young ’20
Tartan: Fiona Sheridan ’20
Junior Varsity Soccer:
MVP: Caroline Ionata ’20
Most Improved: Lucy Young ’19
Tartan: Melina Skinner ’19
Varsity Soccer:
MVP: Caroline Case ’17
Most Improved: Samantha Slark ’19
Tartan: Rebecca Enger ’18
Tennis:
MVP: Dorothy Mesmer ’17
Most Improved: Mary Rowedder ’18
Tartan: Caroline Murphy ’17
Junior Varsity Volleyball:
MVP: Sasha Carmona ’20
Most Improved: Eleasa Woodson ’19
Tartan: Claire Coyle ’19
Varsity Volleyball
MVP: Emily Ryan ’17
Most Improved: Alejandra Serrano ’20
Tartan: Jessica Falcinelli ’17