Racing Knights Sprint to State Meet

As the Outdoor Track and Field season comes to a close, the Montgomery Catholic Racing Knights are among the elite teams heading to the State Meet this weekend in Gulf Shores.  The Boys qualified their largest contingent ever by taking second place at the Sectional Meet held at Smiths Station April 23-24.  The Girls also qualified an elite group by finishing third in the team standings.

Among the record setting performers at Sectionals were the Boys 4x100 Relay.  The quartet of Thomas Stokes, Robert Smith, Brandon Thomas, and Reese Smith shattered the school record and qualified with the fastest time in the 4A classification with their blistering 44.13 performance. Sophomore Winston Wright also crushed two school records as he won both the 110 meter High Hurdles and the 300 meter Hurdles in new school records of 16.87 and 43.40, respectively. In other individual events, senior Reese Smith placed second in the 100 and fourth in the 200 meters.  His senior brother Robert placed fifth in the 100 and sixth in the 200.  Junior Brandon Thomas took silver in both the 200 and 400 meter dashes. Seniors Tay and Tray McCurdy placed 4th and 5th in the Shot Put.  Tray also took bronze in the discus throw.  Freshman Greg Ellis placed 4th in the Long Jump. Eighth grader Grant Walker took 8th in the 1600 meters. Junior Sam Walker finished 8th in the Javelin.

The Racing Knights scored in and qualified in all three relays as Robert Smith, Winston Wright, Greg Ellis, and Brandon Thomas teamed in the 4x400 meter relay and Andrew Lynch, Angel Padilla, Patrick Gregorius, and Grant Walker joined forces in the 4x800 meter relay.  Both squads took 4th place.

For the Girls team, eighth grader Amaris Tyynismaa paced the team and earned Meet MVP by winning the 800 meter, 1600 meter, and 3200 meter runs in addition to working with Katelyn Stark, Annabel Starrett, and Isabelle Cochran by anchoring the 4x800 team to a silver medal.  Sophomore Tamrah Tucker established a new school record in the 100 meter dash in the preliminaries of 12.80 on Friday and then won the finals on Saturday in 12.83.  She also set another school record in the 200 preliminaries with her 26.74 and grabbed second in the finals with a 26.82.  In the 400 meters, she placed 7th in 65.29. Eighth grader Isabelle Cochran placed 6th in the 800 meter run and also qualified for state in the 400 meters. Freshman Katelyn Stark advanced to state in the 1600 and 3200 meter runs.  Iyana Tate, a sophomore, earned second place with her toss of 75-09. Freshman Annabel Starrett also scored for the team by finishing 7th in the 100 hurdles and 8th in the 300 hurdles. In relay action, the girls qualified also qualified in the 4x400 meters as Sarah Beth Littrell, Brayley Mularkey, Isabelle Cochran, and Tamrah Tucker took bronze.

Written by John Terino

Six Montgomery Catholic All-State Band Participants, Russell Named Solo Finalist

Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School received great news from the All-State Honor Band Festival Solo Competition held at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama on April 15. 

Russell selected as All State Band
Solo Finalist

Students from all over the state of Alabama audition for the All-State Honor Bands. The top students are selected to be members of the All-State Bands. Montgomery Catholic has 6 students honored as members of the All-State Band. They are Henry Petters, Beth Vaughan, Logan Stevens, Jonathan Green, Mary Reagan Starrett, and William Russell.

Students who are selected for the All-State Bands are then eligible to compete in the All-State Festival Solo competition if they choose. Usually, only the top 15% or so of All-State Band Members elect to compete in the Solo Festival. Montgomery Catholic had 4 students compete in the 2015 Solo Festival. They are Henry Petters, Beth Vaughan, Logan Stevens, and William Russell. 

All students in the Solo Festival played a preliminary performance for a panel of judges. These judges selected the top 7 performers to be Finalists. These Finalists performed a Finalist Concert for the judges.

All four of the Montgomery Catholic soloists did an admirable job performing at the preliminaries. William Russell was chosen as one of the seven All-State Band Solo Finalists. This is the first time Montgomery Catholic's band program has had a student named as an All-State Solo finalist. A huge honor for Russell as an individual, and great honor for Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School. William Russell is and senior at Montgomery Catholic. He is the son of Dee and Bill Russell of Pike Road, Alabama.

Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School's band is directed by Mr. Alex Johnson. 

Nine Montgomery Catholic Students Receive Duke Tip State Recogonition

Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School proudly announces nine middle school students who have earned State Recognition for their ACT scores by the Duke Talent Identification Program.

The Duke University Talent Identification Program (Duke TIP) identifies academically talented seventh grade students in sixteen states across the Southeast, Midwest, and Southwest who have scored at the 95th percentile or above on standardized achievement tests. Montgomery Catholic had 18 seventh grade students who qualified to participate in the Duke TIP Program last fall with nine students whose high scores qualified them for state recognition.

Montgomery Catholic students who will be honored at the Duke Talent Search State Recognition Ceremony are Lainie Doyle, Jason Flowers, Sofie Izer, Savannah Johnson, Katherine O'Connor, Charles O'Donnell, Katherine Perkins, Anna Sadie, and Clare Wilson.
Lainie Doyle, Savannah Johnson, Charlie O'Donnell, and Katie Perkins qualified for Academy of Summer Studies and Jason Flowers, Sofie Izer, Katherine O'Connor, and Clare Wilson qualified for Center for Summer Studies.

Montgomery Catholic is very proud of these hard working students. Congratulations!

Montgomery Catholic Students Answer, "What does the principal do all day?"

During creative writing in Mrs. Burden's second grade class at Montgomery Catholic's Holy Spirit Campus, students expressed their ideas with illustrations answering the question "What does the principal do all day?"  They were quite creative with their ideas of what Mr. Monson's daily activities! Some of the tasks they believe he does each day are reading emails, signing papers, visiting classrooms, talking on the phone to parents, going to meetings, joining the students at church, giving prizes when students fill their positive behavior punch cards, playing with the students at recess, waving to parents at dismissal and several commented on his stylish and colorful attire, especially his bow ties! All of the stories were delightful!

Pictured:  Montgomery Catholic's Holy Spirit Campus Principal Matthew Monson with several members of Mrs. Ellie Burden's second grade class with their ideas of "What does the principal does all day?".
Front row (L to R)- Keveen Ramirez, Abbey Jones, Antonio Lemuz.
Back row (L to R)- Allison Naccari, Antonio Charles, Alex Brown, Mr. Monson, Heather Walski, Harper Howell.