Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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ND SPORTS BY DAN MURPHY I rish junior Emma Reaney first real- ized she might be up to something special when she heard the race an- nouncer's voice rising from under wa- ter. The public address system at the University Aquatic Center in Minneap- olis, home of the 2014 NCAA Women's Swimming Championships, started to boom midway through Reaney's swim in the 200-yard breaststroke final. She couldn't hear exactly what he was saying, but Reaney could sense the excitement building as the an- nouncer called out her pace en route to the swimmer's first national title and a new American record. Reaney was one of three Notre Dame athletes to claim individual national championships for the university dur- ing the final week of March. Fencers Gerek Meinhardt and Lee Kiefer also took home gold in the men's and wom- en's foil events at the NCAA Fencing Championships in Columbus, Ohio. Meinhardt and Kiefer are both repeat champions for the well decorated fenc- ing program. Reaney's victory marked the first national title for the swimming program. "I'd like to say I was surprised, but if I set my mind to something and really focus on it and visualize it it's probably going to happen," Reaney said. "I had been thinking about it all day. I really want to win a national championship for Notre Dame." The race in Minneapolis punctuated a season in which Reaney established herself as one of the world's best in the breaststroke. A month earlier she raced to an ACC title in 2:04:34, which at the time was the fastest time an American had ever posted in the 200-yard breast- stroke. She shaved another three-tenths Irish Trio Earns Individual National Championships Junior Emma Reaney captured the first-ever indi- vidual national title for the Fighting Irish swim- ming program and, in the process, set a new American record in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:04.06. PHOTO BY WALT MIDDLETON