On Monday, December 12, Senior Katie Stahel was recognized for her swimming accomplishments including eight championships during her high school career.  Friends, coaches, teammates, and even the mayor of New Orleans had a part in the ceremony to honor Stahel’s achievements.  More swimming coverage from the state meet to follow.

The Ursuline Swim Team honored seniors Katie Stahel and Victoria Castille at their District Championship Meet at UNO on Thursday night.

Next up for the UA swimmers, the Metro Championships at UNO November 4-5.

UA Swim finished in 10th place  in Saturday’s Breast Cancer cluster meet. The team was led by Emily MacLaren, Grace Donovan, Kealani Gaspard, and Camille Tiemann. Several other swimmers dropped significant time in preparation for the District Championship meet. Please join us on October 27th as we try to recapture the West district title.

UA Swim finished the regular season with 39 state cut times and 14 girls qualified. Both are school records. Congratulations to everyone on the team. Thanks for supporting UA Swim Team.

UA swim finished second to Cabrini at Tuesday’s cluster meet in Chalmette.  Highlights of the meet included: Katie Stahel winning the 50 and 500 freestyle; Emily MacLaren winning the 100 freestyle and the 100 breaststroke; and Krista Liljeberg qualifying for state in the 100 freestyle.  Way to go Lions!

The Ursuline Swim Team added four new state times on Friday night at UNO.  Katie Stahel and Grace Donovan qualified in the backstroke, Christiane Pettibon in breaststroke, and Lauren Porche in butterfly.  This beings the total of state qualified swimmers to 14.  The girls swim again on Tuesday, October 11 at 6pm against Chalmette.

Photos  courtesy of Megan Schmidt.

On Tuesday night, Ursuline swimming won its first meet of the season, defeating Cabrini and Chalmette.  New state     times included Renee Bonnaffons in the 100 back stoke and 200 free style; Grace Donovan in the 100 freestyle; Emily MacLaren in the 500 freestyle; Megan Schmidt in the 100 freestyle; and Krista Liljeberg in the 200 Individual Medley. These times bring Ursuline’s total to 29 state qualifying times spread amongst 12 girls so far this season.

UA swimming set a record in their first district meet held at the University of New Orleans Aquatic Center on Thursday night.  Eleven different girls swam a total of 16 state qualifying times.

Katie Stahel - 200 Free and 100 Fly
Emily MacLaren - 200 Free and 100 Breast
Kealani Gaspard - 50 Free and 100 Free
Baleigh Fuxan - 50 Free and 100 Free
Renee Bonnaffons - 100 Breast
Megan Mineo - 100 Breast
Grace Donovan - 200 IM
Lauren Porche - 100 Backstroke
Krista Liljeberg - 100 Fly
Camille Tiemann - 50 Free and 100 Free
Marcelle Meyer – 500 Free

Awesome job Lions!

(Photos by: Hannah Marcades)

Hello Ursuline!

“The Greatest Show on Dirt” returns for another fun-filled season. If you are interested in playing softball for the High School Division, please join Coach Garrison on the UA softball field on Tuesday, January 18 at 4:00pm. Please come to the tryout dressed to participate. This is not an informational meeting but an actual tryout. Therefore, gloves, bats, helmets, and other softball equipment is required.

If you have any questions, please contact either Coach Garrison or Coach Bonnaffee prior to Tuesday.

Ursu-online staff

6-Time State Champion Is Now Most Successful Athlete on Campus

Katie joined by her longtime coach Mr. John Gardner

On Friday morning, the High School Division’s student body honored one of its own for her recent athletic accomplishments. Though she is one of Ursuline Academy’s most successful academic students, it is her love for and her dedication to her swimming career that junior Katie Stahel ‘12 is most know for on State St. No matter how many swimmers participate in a meet, the first comment asked on the day following the meet is always, “How did Katie do“? The answer is always the same: “She dominated as usual“.

Beginning in 2008, Stahel ‘12 laid the framework for what was to become the most successful high school athletic career in the history of our Academy. True, maybe there was an athlete in the 1940s who was very talented, however, according to our recent records, no UA athlete has accomplished as much as Stahel ‘12 has accomplished within a four year span. Therefore, in our opinion, Stahel ‘12 has become UA’s most decorated athlete.

The student body presented Stahel ‘12 with her 5th and 6th awards ..each an acknowledgement of a state championship that now holds her name. In the above picture, Stahel ‘12 is holding a framed certificate that is presented to each member of the State Street State Champ Club. Mr. Gardner is holding a special gold framed version of the certificate which represents Stahel ‘12 being the first person in Ursuline Academy history to reach six (6) state titles.

On behalf of the entire Ursuline Academy family, congratulations to Katie and her family on a job well done and best wishes for continued success throughout her senior year.

Stahel ‘12 Captures 5th and 6th State Championships during 2010 LHSAA State Meet; Team Produces Phenomenal Performance at Meet

The New Gold Standard of UA SWIMMING and she has one year left!

On Thursday, November 18, 2010, Coach Gardner and the Ursuline Academy Swim Team participated in the LHSAA State Swim Meet in Sulfur, Louisiana. Thursday was the day that all swimmers look forward to. If you are swimming on this day, that means you are one of the best swimmers in your class / division. On Wednesday, the swimmers who qualified for the LHSAA State Meet competed in the preliminary round. In this round, a swimmer needed to produce a certain time to ensure herself the opportunity to swim on Championship Thursday. Coach Gardner brought seven (7) swimmers with him to the 2010 State Meet and all seven (7) participate on Championship Thursday. Though one swimmer will receive the headlines (and rightfully so) for her history making night, it was the performance of the entire team that made the 2010 Meet one of Ursuline Academy’s greatest performances in the history of the swimming program.

UA’s200 Medley Relay team (Stahel ‘12, Schmidt ‘13, MacLaren ‘14, Fuxan ‘15) started the day with a seventh place finish and obtained the team much needed points early in the competition. The next big event occured when junior Katie Stahel ‘12 competed in the 200 Freestyle. She entered the race as the #1 ranked swimmer and the two-time defending state champion. When the race was over, Stahel’12 completed a three-peat by winning the race for three consecutive years (2008,2009,2010). With the win, Stahel ’12 captured her fifth State Championship.

In the 200 Individual Medley, eighth grader Baileigh Fuxan ‘15 finished 15th in her first State Meet. The big story of this race was sophomore Megan Schmidt ‘13 who swam the race with an injured shoulder and not only completed the race, but also moved up from her 8th place start to a 4th place finish. A truly gutsy performance by the sophomore.

In 100 Butterfly, freshman  Krista Liljeberg ‘14 finished 14th in her first of many appearances at the State Meet. It was during this race that Katie Stahel ‘12 made school history by capturing her 6thState Championship with a win in 100 Fly. With her sixth title, Katie Stahel’12 becomes the only member of the Ursuline Academy family to walk the historical halls of the Street St. campus with that many titles. She is officially the most-decorated athlete in school history. On behalf of the entire academy, congratulations to Katie on this wonderful accomplishment.

In the longest race of the meet, Megan Schmidt’13 returned to compete in the 500 Freestyle. Ursuline battled the competition with a strong 1-2 punch by also entering freshman Emily MacLaren ‘14 in the event. When the race concluded, Schmitt ‘13 had finished 6th and MacLaren ‘14 was right behind her in seventh place.

In the 200 Freestyle Relay (Mobley ‘11, Bonnaffons ‘13, Tiemann ‘14, and Liljeberg ‘14), the UA team dropped an entire second from their time and moved up from the 8th position to the 7th position and obtained much needed points in the overall team competition. The great performances continued in the 100 Breaststroke when MacLaren ‘14 finished 10th and first-year state team member Renee Bonnaffons ‘13 finished in 14th place. Both swimmers swam their best times during the race. As you can tell, the team is presently delivering its strongest performance in years!

In the final race of the evening, the UA team placed 4th in the 400 Freestyle Relay (Stahel ‘12, Schmidt ‘13, MacLaren ‘14, and Fuxan ‘15).

It was now time to wait for the judges to compile the final totals. Though the team was not going to finish as State Champions, the team members knew they had delivered big and eagerly awaited the announcement to see exactly where they placed in the overall team competition. Excitement filled the air when it was announced that Ursuline Academy finished in 4th Place. This performance ties the second best performance in the last decade for Ursuline Swimming (perhaps in the entire history of the program but we are only aware of the past decade). Ursuline Academy’s best performance was a 3rd Place finish in 2003 and tonight’s performance ties the 2004 performance when the team finished 4th. What a great performance this year. Ursuline Swimming Rules!  

 We would like to thank Mrs. Kim Stahel for making the following pictures available to our online readers.

The New Gold Standard of UA SWIMMING

Members of the UA State Swim Team; Fuxan ‘15 is not pictured (we are sorry Baileigh! We can photoshop you in. We apologize!)

Members of the 2010 UA State Swim Team; Sorry Fuxan ‘15 is not pictured (Go Baileigh .. we could photoshop you in?)

Members of the UA State Swim Team; Fuxan '15 is not pictured (we are sorry Baileigh! We can photoshop you in. We apologize!)

Hello Ursuline!

We thought you might be interested in knowing how our Ursuline Academy Swim Team is doing at the LHSAA State Swim Meet in Sulfur, Louisiana. The first day of the meet is typically qualifying races for the second day of the meet. In other words, all swimmers who qualified for the State Meet participate on the first day and then, if their times are good enough, qualify to compete on the second day of the meet and it is on the second day that we determine the State Champion and other awards.

Day 1 Highlights: