ARLINGTON — Looking ahead to the 2024-25 season, which begins on Friday, Marymount Athletics will once again build on unprecedented success.  
 
The Saints brought 13 conference championships back to Arlington, and six teams qualified for NCAA championships in the 2023-24 academic year. This success marked department records and helped Marymount win the Mike Drass Cup and Atlantic East Commissioner's Trophies for the second year.  
 
By-the-numbers look at the success of Marymount Athletics in 2023-24: 

• Two (2) Atlantic East Major Award recipients 
• Six (6) Conference Coaching Staff of the Year Awards 
• Eight (8) Conference Rookie of the Year Awards 
• Nine (9) Conference Player of the Year Awards 
• 138 All-Conference selections, including 84 First Team honorees 
• 12 VaSID All-State selections 
• 11 All-Region selections 
• One (1) All-American 
• Eight (8) Atlantic East Elite 20 Awards 
• 245 Academic All-Conference selections 
• 37 CSC Academic All-District selections 
• Two (2) Academic All-Americans

2023-24 Marymount Athletics Major Award Winners

• SAAC Golden Cup: Women's Lacrosse
• Linda McMahon Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Isabella Ochalik, Women's Swimming
• Linda McMahon Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Jack Bifano, Men's Basketball
• Breakthrough Student-Athlete of the Year: Kyle Lewis, Baseball
• Male Rookie Student-Athlete of the Year: Rylan Moose, Men's Wrestling
• Female Rookie Student-Athlete of the Year: Leila Lajdel, Women's Soccer
• Male Student-Athlete of the Year: Leonardo Torres, Men's Soccer
• Co-Female Student-Athletes of the Year: Chandler Eddleton and Symantha Shackelford, Women's Basketball

In 2024-25, Marymount Athletics will boast some new faces around the department. Kameron Blanding has arrived on campus as the new head men's and women's cross country/track & field coach and is excited to build on back-to-back women's track and field conference championships, among other program successes. 
 
The women's flag football program is set to debut at varsity status this year under the guidance of head coach Mike Rivera. The Saints won the inaugural Atlantic East championship in the spring with dominant victories over Immaculata and Centenary.  
 
This fall, Marymount women's soccer and women's volleyball welcome back a lot of talent and will look to repeat as conference champions after winning last fall. The men's soccer team graduated several impact players and will look to some newcomers to help the Saints pursue a second conference title in three seasons.  
 
The men's golf program joined the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) as associate members this year and will compete for the conference championship in late September. The conference has an automatic bid to April's NCAA championships.  
 
Over the winter, Marymount's basketball and swimming programs face the daunting task of attempting to win a third-straight conference championship. All four programs have lost some decorated student-athletes to graduation and will lean on some younger Saints to return to the conference's pinnacle. 
 
Men's wrestling (in its third season) and women's wrestling (in its second season) are still two of the newest sports offerings at Marymount, but that hasn't stopped the Saints from achieving success on the mats. Led by Roy Hill and Justin Wildy, respectively, both wrestling programs will look to expand on regional success last season and continue to grow numbers to fill out a competitive top-to-bottom roster. 
 
One of the most consistent Marymount programs, the men's volleyball team looks to reload after another successful season last year in the ultra-competitive Continental Volleyball Conference. Another of the most consistent programs is women's golf, which has come off a third conference championship and has had an NCAA appearance in each of the last four years. The team looks to reload after losing a few talented seniors to graduation.  
 
Since 2022, Marymount's men's and women's tennis programs have won five Atlantic East titles and have had five conference players of the year. Heading into a new season under new leadership, the Saints look to build on their conference dominance and continue to find success at the regional and national level.  
 
After filling in on an interim basis last spring, Leigh Murray-Winstead is now Marymount's head softball coach as the Saints head into the program's fourth season. This year will mark the first four-year class of graduating seniors, who have achieved the No. 2 conference seed the past two seasons and are hungry for the program's first conference title.  
 
The baseball, men's lacrosse and women's lacrosse programs should again be strong in the spring and will look to add to the department's conference championship haul. With the unfortunate closing of Atlantic East member Cabrini in May, the conference is as wide open as ever in those three sports, and the Saints will look to capitalize.  
 
Check out Marymount's composite schedule for the full calendar of contests. The first home event of the year will feature Marymount men's soccer against Dickinson on Friday, August 30 at 7 pm at Long Bridge Park.