ACCURATELY
The endowment rose by 10% to reach a record $17.9 billion
Endowment rebounds CDems and CReps clash over Trump
By ZACK POHLMAN Staff Writer
Notre Dame’s 2024 Annual Report announced a 10% return on the University’s endowment, bringing its total value to $17.9 billion. The total value of the University’s investment portfolio, which encompasses the endowment, working capital and additional assets, is now $20.4 billion. Coming on the heels of two consecutive years of little to no growth, the University’s portfolio rebounded.
In the past, the main driver of the endowment pool’s growth has been the University’s investments in private equity.
“The endowment portfolio has an equity bias, given that both public and private equity have well outpaced investment returns on other assets
over longer timeframes,” Tim Dolezal, vice president and chief investment officer, said.
“We target 40% to private eq uity, 35% to public equity and 25% to our lower-risk multistrategy portfolio.”
managed an 18.4% return, while private markets re mained relatively constant.
They have been relatively qui et in recent years while wait ing for economic activity to pick back up.
Dame Institute for Global Investing (NDIGI), said.
ket would go down, right? And therefore returns
According to the report,
ciples of the endowment is its “intergenerational time horizon.” The growth of the endowment benefits not only current students, but also future generations —
After decreasing in value in the prior two fiscal years, the University endowment rose to nearly $18 billion with a 10% return in 2024.
“You were seeing limited amounts of M&A [mergers and acquisitions] activity post-COVID, and because of that, the demand for buying these companies is going down,” Jason Reed, associate faculty director of the Notre
EIC selects new Editorial Board
Observer Staff Report
Nine department heads will complete The Observer’s 20252026 Editorial Board, incoming Editor-in-Chief Liam Kelly announced Tuesday.
“The members of the incoming Editorial Board have proven themselves during their tenure at The Observer thus far, and I’m sure they will continue to do excellent work to ensure the paper’s success,” Kelly said.
The nine department editors will join Kelly as well as Managing Editor Gray Nocjar and Assistant Managing Editors Aynslee Dellacca, Grace Tadajweski and Henry Jagodzinski in handling the editorial responsibilities of the paper.
Freshman Sophie Hanawalt will take over as Notre Dame News Editor. Hanawalt, a global affairs major, is from Birmingham, Michigan, and lives in Welsh Family Hall. She
previously served as a staff writer and associate news editor, covering student protests, housing issues, the impact of federal policies on the Notre Dame community and more.
Sophomore Noah Cahill, a Fisher Hall resident from Farmington Hills, Michigan, will serve as Sports Editor. Cahill joined The Observer in August 2023 and has covered soccer, football and lacrosse. He is a double major in psychology and American studies and served as associate sports editor on the football beat last semster.
Berhan Hagezom, a freshman neuroscience and chemistry double major at Saint Mary’s from Las Vegas, will serve as Saint Mary’s News Editor. Hagezom has worked as a staff writer under the Saint Mary’s news department this semester and has written a dozen articles covering
those who will be at Notre Dame 10 or even 20 years from now. With a focus on long-term returns, the investment office places less emphasis on short-term
By SOPHIE HANAWALT Associate News Editor
The Notre Dame College Democrats Executive Board posted a letter last Wednesday requesting University President Fr. Robert Dowd refrain from inviting President Trump to speak at commencement this year. The letter served as a response to The Observer’s recent editorial, which called for Trump’s invitation. Yesterday, the Notre Dame College Republicans Board posted a response to the College Democrats statement, titled “Keep the Tradition.”
Presidents who have spoken at Notre Dame commencement include Dwight Eisenhower, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.
W. Bush, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
The College Democrats’ letter argued that Trump’s policies stand in opposition to Catholic Social Teaching (CST) and therefore Notre Dame’s values, contrasting mass incarceration and immigration policies with statements from Pope Francis and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
In their letter supporting Trump’s prospective invitation, the College Republicans addressed this connection between CST and immigration policies, writing, “prudential border control is not uncatholic,” and making the case that Catholic teachings enable
Professor speaks on Central American corruption
By DAVID MURPHY and JESSICA MAYOR Staff Writer and News Writer
The Kellogg Institute for International Studies hosted University of Oklahoma professor Rachel Schwartz on Tuesday to discuss international anti-corruption efforts. Schwartz, author of the award-winning 2023 book “Undermining the State from Within: The Institutional Legacies of Civil War in Central America,” began the lecture by expressing the importance of corruption as a crisis not only at a domestic level but also at an international one.
“So corruption, as I’m sure many of you know, has long been considered a dire challenge when it comes to development at the domestic level,” Schwartz said. “But I think in recent decades, we’ve seen a growing conversation, growing recognition, that corruption is not just a development problem, it’s also a pressing international security
challenge as well.”
Schwartz’s lecture focused on the role of International Anti-Corruption Commissions (IACCs), in which international experts collaborate with domestic governments to investigate and prosecute corruption, raise anti-corruption awareness and propose institutional reforms. Though supportive of the roles IACCs play in combating corruption, Schwartz was careful to note their limitations.
“There’s a catch here, which is that these kinds of shared sovereignty arrangements … entail significant domestic government authority over what these kinds of initiatives actually look like,” she said. “Domestic political actors must authorize the introduction of entities like IACCs … and so this leads to the potential that domestic governments can limit the scope of an IACC’s work.”
“The first distinction that I draw is whether IACC pressure is primarily derived from civil society mobilization or whether it occurs through the initiative of domestic leaders who are guided by more self-interested and particularistic motives,” Schwartz said. “In some cases, IACC pressures may come from outside governments as well as domestic civil society. I argue that this process, this kind of pressure, is more likely to induce [highly] autonomous commissions.”
Schwartz specifically called see LECTURE PAGE 3
In her lecture, Schwartz explained the varying degrees of autonomy domestic governments are willing to lend to these organizations and how this influences their effectiveness. In answering these questions, Schwartz examined the role of IACCs in several Central American nations. From these case studies, she found the conditions pressuring countries into establishing IACCs heavily influence their autonomy and, thus, effectiveness.
ZACK POHLMAN | The Observer
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Notre Dame vs. SMU Purcell Pavilion 7 p.m.
Notre Dame men’s basketball takes on SMU.
Wellsprings Campus Discussion O’Shaughnessy Hall
3:30 p.m. - 5 p.m.
Discuss fears about social divisiveness. Thursday
International
3:30 p.m. - 5 p.m.
Discuss the ethics of international travel.
South Asia Populist Politics Discussion Hesburgh Center
4 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Panel disccusion on South Asian populism.
Notre Dame vs. Wisconsin Eck Tennis Pavilion 4 p.m.
Men’s tennis takes on Wisconsin.
Comic Bowling Strikes and Spares 8 p.m. - 10 p.m. Free bowling and transportation provided.
Saturday
Notre Dame vs. Pitt
2:15 p.m.
Notre Dame men’s basketball takes on Pitt.
American Psycho Debartolo Performing
Center 9:30 p.m. - 11:15 p.m.
Get
Lecture
attention to Guatemala’s IACC, the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, which was highly successful in pursuing anticorruption measures relative to neighboring states. Schwartz attributed its 12 years of success to a strong Guatemalan civil society that pressured the government into creating the commission. She then contrasted Guatemala’s relative success with El Salvador’s,
Endowment
results.
“If you look at any given year historically, it’s a coin flip whether private equity outperforms public equity, but over ten-year periods, private equity has outperformed public equity consistently,” Dolezal said.
With that in mind and considering the positive results last year, the Notre Dame Investment Office is sticking to their guns, trusting that results will materialize in the long run.
“I think the Investment Office is going to stay the course and continue to make their contributions to the operations of the University,” Reed said.
Dolezal said his office’s methodology on the private side can be broken down into two categories.
“One, investing in breakthrough technologies at the
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
the creation and legislative control of borders.
In a 2024 interview with Notre Dame Magazine, former University President Fr. John Jenkins shared that former Vice President Mike Pence was invited instead of Trump in 2017 due to Trump’s failure to meet “a certain bar in terms of just moral decency.” College Democrats further argued that Trump’s foreign aid policies stand in violation of CST, writing, “by freezing foreign aid, dismantling the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and threatening to annex Greenland, the Panama Canal and the Gaza Strip, the Trump administration is allowing millions to fall into poverty, famine, disease and uncertainty while suggesting Americans can blindly ignore this harm.” They went on to suggest that these actions stand against the University’s mission of “bettering the world around
whose IACC was a product of its leader’s self-interest.
“This is an IACC that is not really created to fight corruption at all. It is created to target the government’s political opponents, and as a result, it is vested with very little autonomy,” Schwartz explained. “So the case of El Salvador is very much one of an IACC that’s really only intended to go after corruption in ways authorized by the executive, which, of course, requires its complete political subordination and lack of opportunity.”
Schwartz’s second
earliest possible stages alongside the world’s leading venture capitalists, and two, investing in small and medium sized enterprises managed by owner/operators that generate returns by growing those companies and improving them,” he said.
However, investing endowment money requires a slightly different process than opening the Robinhood app on a smartphone and tapping a few buttons.
“The endowment team seeks out other equity managers and looks at their strategy to determine if they them want to partner with the University,” Reed said. If it is determined to be a good fit, he explained, “we’ll allocate a portion of the endowment to the money managers to then invest using their strategy.”
Without the connections to these firms, the endowment would not have such a successful track record, Reed explained.
“Because we have been
us” and being a force for good.
In response, the College Republicans wrote that, “just as a father would be wrong to deprive his children of food by donating it to a faraway land, prioritizing noncitizens at the expense of citizens is gravely unjust,” arguing that an embrace of foreign aid represented an “incredibly misguided reading of CST.” They argued that CST’s principle of subsidiarity meant citizens should be prioritized and decisions should favor the community.
The College Republicans also suggested that conforming to CST has not traditionally been a requirement for invitation, as President Biden was invited (but did not attend) in 2021 despite his advocacy for the preservation of abortion access and President Obama spoke in 2009 despite his support for abortion access and his enacting of deportation policies.
“As a baptized Catholic, former President Biden was not only in a canonical state to receive excommunication
distinction was transnational factors. She noted that corrupt Central American leaders learned from the circumstances of their neighbors and incorporated that knowledge for their own purposes when inviting IACCs into their countries.
“There are clear ways in which … domestic leaders learned from prior IACC experiences of their neighbors,” Schwartz pointed out. “For instance, in response to the significant advances in the UNsponsored IACC in Guatemala, what do Honduran and Salvadoran leaders do? They
executing this strategy for 40 years, we have a unique portfolio and set of relationships, especially in venture capital, that we could never replicate today if we were starting from scratch — it is one of the University’s most valuable assets,” Dolezal said.
When selecting firms to partner with, the investment office begins by considering what sets Notre Dame apart from other top-20 universities. Each holding and investment in the endowment is carefully reviewed to ensure it aligns with the Catholic values of the University and complies with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Socially Responsible Investment Guidelines, which provide a framework for investing in line with Catholic principles.
“We focus on building partnerships with investment firms who have a deep expertise in their specific field and a strong, driven, partnership-oriented team,” Dolezal said. “At the end of the day, our returns are
but also publicly scandalized Catholics and the Catholic faith through his advocacy for abortion — far more than can be said about President Trump,” the College Republicans wrote.
The College Republicans continued by maintaining that if adherence to CST was a necessity for acceptance at Notre Dame, the College Democrats themselves stand in clear opposition to CST and would therefore be banned, writing that the Democrats “promote abortion, the transitioning of minors and access to euthanasia.”
The College Democrats argued that their objection was not simply partisan. Rather, they stood in opposition to The Observer’s assertion that “inviting the President to speak would highlight a commitment to civil dialogue.”
“While we agree that Notre Dame students must be able to engage in respectful and productive conversation, President Trump is one of the last people students should try to emulate in this regard,” the College Democrats wrote.
The Democrats cited the
instead engage in this sort of forum shopping, and go with the [Organization of American States].”
Two of Schwartz’s key takeaways from this empirical evidence were that IACCs don’t develop in a vacuum and that the circumstances motivating leaders to create them are vital to their success. Despite the shortcomings, Schwartz remained optimistic about the potential role IACCs could play, hoping that her findings would promote increased longevity to future commissions and noting that even in countries like
driven more by who we partner with than what we specifically own, though the latter is a direct result of the former.”
According to the report, the endowment paid out $607 million in 2024, an increase of 6% from 2023. $232 million of the payout went towards undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships. Notre Dame awarded $430 million in 2024 for scholarships and fellowships.
“We recently announced that going forward, Notre Dame will be both need-blind and loan-free for domestic and international students as we redouble our efforts to make a Notre Dame education even more accessible and affordable,” University President Fr. Robert Dowd wrote in the introduction to the report.
The University’s operating expenses for the year totaled $1.67 billion. 13% of the payout was allocated to general operations, while 4% went to athletics and the remaining 83% supported academic programs
Notre Dame Democracy Initiative’s efforts to make campus a place for productive dialogue around preserving democracy. “[Trump’s] refusal to accept the legitimate election results and the peaceful transfer of power, a centuries-old democratic tradition of our nation, shakes the very foundation of democracy in the United States,” wrote the College Democrats.
The College Republicans called the University’s democracy initiatives “absurd” and maintained that claims of a threat to democracy posed by Trump were invalid as he “defeated his opposition in a free and fair election.”
The College Republicans suggested that the invitation of Pence rather than Trump in 2016 was the product of “a tidal wave of liberal panic overwhelming our institutions.”
They argued that this time around, the invitation would “positively affect public discourse,” maintaining that because the majority of Catholic voters supported
Honduras and El Salvador with weaker commissions, IACCs still found success.
“A really interesting piece of all of this is that despite the constraints, in all three cases but especially the two more constrained commissions … they exceed those,” Schwartz said. “They overcame those constraints and made much more progress than they were ever meant to.”
Contact David Murphy dmurph23@nd.edu and Jessica Mayor at jmayor2@nd.edu
and research.
Dolezal, who took over as Chief Investment Officor on July 1, 2024, noted that the culture of the Notre Dame Investment Office, made up entirely of Notre Dame alumni, was the main reason for their sustained success.
“We are the only endowment [of the 20 largest endowments] whose returns rank in the top three over the past one, five, ten and 20 fiscal years,” he said.
Despite the success, the University continues to strive for more, Dolezal explained.
“We need to be maniacally focused on getting better every day,” Dolezal said. “If we do a great job, Notre Dame will be an even greater force for good in our country, our world, and our church. It is an incredible blessing to be in a position to make an impact on something that you love and believe in deeply.”
Contact Zack Pohlman at zpohlma2@nd.edu
Trump, “now is the moment to recenter the conversation on our shared faith and encourage cross-party Catholic political solidarity at Notre Dame.”
The College Democrats ended their statement by acknowledging that Notre Dame does have a long tradition of inviting presidents and vice presidents to speak, but wrote that “restarting this tradition with a president or vice president who espouses anti-immigrant rhetoric, denies election results and pardons violent insurrectionists, has been found liable for sexual abuse, and attacks the human dignity of our brothers and sisters across the world would be counter to the ideals of Our Lady’s University.”
The College Republicans said refusing to invite Trump “would be deeply regrettable if a school so invested in democratic outcomes and American Catholic identity were to refuse to invite the sitting president to speak.”
Contact Sophie Hanawalt at shanawal@nd.edu
Faculty react to Pope’s U.S. immigration letter
By BRIGID IANNELLI News Writer
On Feb. 10, the Vatican published a letter from Pope Francis to all bishops in the United States in which he addressed recent changes in U.S. immigration policy as a result of President Donald Trump’s return to office. He called on the bishops to stand in solidarity with immigrants at risk of deportation and to affirm the human dignity of all persons.
President Trump cracked down on illegal immigration in the U.S almost immediately following his inauguration. In his first week alone, he signed 10 executive orders, directing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to detain everyone they arrest pending their deportation. Moreover, on orders from DHS, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is now permitted to make arrests in “sensitive” areas such as schools and churches.
Pope Francis made it clear in his letter that he is concerned with the current situation in America.
“I have followed closely the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations. The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly
Ed Board
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
events, lectures and new developments at Saint Mary’s.
Sophomore Peter Mikulski will continue as Scene Editor after serving in the same position for the 2024-2025 term. Mikulski is a resident of Siegfried Hall from Chicagoland as well as a medieval studies major interested in poetry.
Sophomore Abby Hernan will serve as Viewpoint Editor for the spring 2025 semester while junior Redmond Bernhold will serve as Viewpoint Editor for fall 2025 and spring 2026. A political science and applied and computational mathematics and statistics major from Orlando, Florida, living in Lewis Hall, Hernan joined in fall 2023 and has worked as a Viewpoint copyeditor since, occasionally writing inside columns.
Bernhold is a resident of Siegfried Hall from Minster, Ohio, studying biochemistry. He started at The Observer in August 2022 as a news writer and currently serves on the social media team in addition to writing a Viewpoint column on media, culture and politics. He worked last summer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and will work this summer for The
or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality,” he wrote.
While he did not mention the Vice President by name, Francis also seemed to address JD Vance’s recent comments on “ordo amoris,” an ancient Christian concept meaning “rightly-ordered love.”
Fr. Paul Kollman, an associate professor of theology at Notre Dame, described “ordo amoris” as “a way to talk about how to prioritize the ways you exercise your love in your life so that there is a proper ordering of your love.” The idea appeared frequently in the writings of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas.
In a January interview with Fox News, Vance said, “[T] here’s this old-school — and I think it’s a very Christian concept, by the way — that you love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country, and then, after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world.”
When Vance’s interview received backlash on X, he clarified, “Just google ‘ordo amoris.’”
In what seemed to be a response to Vance’s remarks, Francis wrote, “The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the ‘Good
Wall Street Journal as a Real Estate Reporter in New York.
Freshman Alumni Hall resident Duncan Stangel will take over as Social Media Editor. Originally from Cumberland, Maryland, Stangel is a global affairs major. He joined the Viewpoint department as a columnist in September 2024, aiming to provide a smalltown perspective on family, politics and campus life. He is also a former podcaster and current radio host.
Mariella Taddonio, a freshman at Saint Mary’s from Murrysville, Pennsylvania, and a double major in communication studies and social work, will serve as Photo Editor. Joining the paper this fall, Taddonio worked as a staff photographer, taking photos for multiple events and games including the Orange Bowl, as well as writing for the Saint Mary’s news department.
Isabelle Rutland, a freshman in Walsh Hall, will take over as Graphics Editor. Rutland is from Fairhope, Alabama, and is majoring in architecture. She joined the graphics department last August and has been working weekly shifts since.
Hanawalt will begin her term as Notre Dame News Editor March 2, while the rest of the Editorial Board will assume their new positions March 7.
Samaritan,’ that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.”
Antônio Lemos, a Ph.D. candidate in Notre Dame’s theology department whose research focuses on migration ethics in Catholic social teaching, thought both Vance and Francis had valuable insights. He recognized Vance was arguing to put struggling American families first before helping immigrants but also that the Church emphasizes welcoming migrants.
“There is a middle ground where we can try to take care of both [blue-collar families] and immigrants. You could make that case especially in situations where people are fleeing from violent countries, et cetera,” he said.
However, Lemos also considered the idea that the Pope might have misinterpreted Vance’s argument.
“I think Pope Francis [is] missing the point that JD Vance is trying to make that there are already poor people in the U.S. who need special attention, and the U.S. should concentrate on them,” he said.
Kollman had a different view.
“JD Vance is not someone who speaks for the Church. Pope Francis speaks for the Church,” he said. “I think it really annoys the pope when people cherrypick these concepts to buttress
their political opinions.”
In an email with The Observer, Geoffrey Layman, the chair of the department of political science at Notre Dame, emphasized that most American Catholics may not even have this letter on their radar.
“For one thing, most Americans pay rather little attention to politics and most American Catholics attend Mass only a few times a year or less often. In other words, neither politics nor faith appears to be hugely salient in the lives of most American Catholics,” Layman wrote.
He also noted that Catholic voters in the U.S. may not always consider the Church’s views when making their own political choices.
“If they did, most American Catholics would be pro-life on abortion (most are prochoice), and there would be a lot more support than there is among Catholic voters for social welfare programs to help disadvantaged people, for government efforts to fight climate change, and for the rights of immigrants and refugees,” he wrote.
Kollman echoed this sentiment, saying, “People are more inclined these days to let their political opinions determine their religious affiliation and loyalties rather than vice versa.”
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In the long-term, both Layman and Notre Dame political science professor David Campbell do suspect the Catholic Church could once again clash with the Trump administration regarding immigration. This has the potential to change the minds of Catholic voters.
“[I]t is possible that this message — combined with others from the Pope, bishops, and local priests — could begin to shift Catholics’ opinions on this issue. For that to happen, however, it would take sustained attention to the issue from Catholic leaders, and a united front within the Church hierarchy,” Campbell wrote in an email.
Over time, Layman suspects the conflict could impact Latino Catholics, a demographic that increased its support for Trump in the 2024 election.
“Aggressive deportation of undocumented immigrants from Latin America, combined with open conflict between the Trump administration and the Catholic Church on both immigration and government support for religious charities, may significantly reduce Trump’s new-found support among Latino Catholic voters,” he wrote.
Contact Brigid Ianelli at bianell@nd.edu
Tyler Reidy Sports Editor INSIDE COLUMN
An Observer sports year in review
When I wrote my first inside column after taking over as the sports editor last March, I focused on embracing the unexpected. Not knowing the full outcome of a play, a game or a season is one of the best things about sports, and the best sports coverage captures and builds off of that element.
Over the past year, we as a sports department have operated in a time of change and new opportunities in the tri-campus community. Two of Notre Dame’s longesttenured coaches, softball’s Deanna Gumpf and hockey’s Jeff Jackson, announced the end of their runs. The men’s swim team had its 2024-25 season suspended. Notre Dame football played 16 games for the first time in program history, reaching the national championship game.
Unanticipated happenings have also occurred in my own life, shifting the day-to-day flow of the department. Midway through my term, I began to travel full-time with the hockey team, which meant I missed football games and was often hundreds of miles away for Thursday production sessions. In response, a lot of people have stepped up within and beyond the sports department, and I want to use this piece to highlight and appreciate some of their best work from the past 11 months.
March is one of the craziest months for a new sports editor to take over, as the full extent of spring sports overlaps with winter sports and their postseasons. During spring break, hockey, men’s basketball and women’s basketball all competed in their conference tournaments, with the women’s team winning the ACC Championship. Outgoing sports editor Andrew McGuinness and sports writers Jake Miller and Henry Lytle were instrumental in
getting the 2024-25 term off to a strong start with their coverage.
In the weeks and months that followed, we took on the challenge of the commencement edition of the paper, which for the sports department entailed interviewing coaches and writing season recaps for each and every Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s and Holy Cross team. I was thrilled with the way it turned out and how we were able to celebrate both some of the greatest student-athletes in South Bend and our most dedicated senior sports writers.
On came the summer and the two monumental coaching changes I mentioned earlier. J.J. Post fittingly wrote his last Observer article (among hundreds) about Notre Dame softball, while Ryan Murphy did equally terrific work covering hockey’s approaching changing of the guard.
Then, there was football season. A season that only our tremendous football beat of assistant managing editor Madeline Ladd, soon-to-be sports editor Noah Cahill and seniors Annika Herko and Matthew Crow could do justice. Maddie and Noah told the story of success in College Station. Then Matthew and I tore it all down a week later after the Northern Illinois game.
Several young writers also made their football coverage debuts and processed what can be an overwhelming media environment at Notre Dame Stadium with great skill and professionalism. Henry covered the Miami (Ohio) and Florida State games, Ryan Eastland the Stanford game, Chris Dailey the Senior Day game against Virginia and Ben Hicks the first on-campus College Football Playoff game.
Our coverage continued all the way through the national championship in Atlanta. Although the game didn’t go the way the Irish faithful hoped it would, I can confidently speak for the entire sports department and
paper that it was such an immensely special privilege to be around for that type of postseason run. Some of The Observer’s finest were there, including outgoing Editorin-Chief Isa Sheikh and incoming EIC Liam Kelly, along with me and Henry.
Of course, the glory of tri-campus athletics runs so much deeper than football, and I take very seriously the chance to bring readers closer to any on-campus team they care about. Claire Watson has been a huge asset in our Saint Mary’s and Holy Cross coverage, writing close to 10 stories a week at times. Ben and Noah have also enhanced our coverage of Notre Dame basketball, a good thing to have going as the Irish women contend for a national championship. Those three writers have also led our Baraka and Bengal Bouts coverage, a staple Observer tradition.
I also want to shout out incoming managing editor Gray Nocjar, who spent my term as the photo editor. For those who don’t know, the presentational quality of the sports department depends significantly on the photo department. The more photos we have of relevant players and games from recent times, the more complete our content looks. Gray and his photographers have shot more games than we could ever need, and I’m extremely grateful for them.
Though I won’t be going anywhere, I’m two weeks away from my last as Sports Editor. With all of the sportscasting duties I’ve piled up, I’ll happily admit that the department deserves a leader who has more time to, you know, run the department. But you’ll still see my bylines, albeit at a much more reasonable frequency.
You can contact Tyler at treidy3@nd.edu.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
Forecast: transience
Things I have done since writing my last column:
1. Reread my last column, and found eight things I wanted to change about it.
2. Saw sunshine peek through the permacloud three times, and felt inexplicable bursts of serotonin. Turned to my company each time and told them I was definitely moving to California one day.
3. Some homework.
4. Almost slipped twice in the Trader Joe’s parking lot.
5. Skimmed through my designated comfort chapters of “Little Women” — a book that I’m allowed to skim because I’ve reread it so many times and surely that gives me skimming rights — and bewildered myself with the number of times I felt like Amy, not Jo.
6. Added some items of clothing to shopping carts on different sites. Ended up not buying anything.
7. Sold some items of clothing. Tried my best not to turn an act of sustainable decluttering into an emotional farewell to intimate belongings.
8. Ruminated.
9. Remembered to take my vitamins more often than I forgot.
Things I have not done since writing my last column:
1. Replaced my speaker charger which will only work if plugged in from a hyper-specific angle from one particular outlet in my room.
2. Got ahead in brainstorming for this one.
3. Broken free from the labyrinthine cycle between late nights and over caffeinating.
4. Found a way to be water. To say that I am unbothered and steady.
5. Mastered the material for my Econ exam.
6. Unsubscribed from email lists I don’t need anymore.
7. It’s been a persistent winter, and the other day, while it was warm for a split second, I knew I’d jinxed it the moment I asked the Uber driver on the way to Olf’s if she thought the weather would stay this nice. She said yes, she did think so. Now we’re both disillusioned.
Did you notice how my first list was longer than my second? I swear I dedicated the same amount of time to coming up with points for both. Nine eclipses six, and I’ve gotten more things done than I haven’t.
I’ll feel accomplished about it, and you’ll maybe go and make your own lists. Or don’t, just revel in mine. But I’ll wager that sometimes you feel overwhelmed, maybe you feel like there’s always more to be done.
Or maybe I make no sense to you.
But in the interest of probing, I think I might make some more assumptions.
I’d like to assume that you’re also trying to find symmetry between attainment and respite, between growth and contentment. That you sometimes lose track of time staring at a ceiling fan, snapping into consciousness only to half wish you’d stayed in that suspended haze.
I’ll imagine that some nights, when you are trying to sleep, it gets unnerving and loud, and you have to stay up playing Tetris or blasting The Cure to get it to wrap up and quiet down.
That you nod along while conversations drift over your head and then evaporate, and you’re actually there but you really aren’t, you’re thinking about brunch tomorrow or the text you’re waiting for, or you aren’t thinking about anything at all.
I presume that you’ve found yourself mid-scroll, finger hovering over the Eternal Feed, and wondered if this is what they meant by “digital natives,” and if the normality of your screen time can justify the heap of hours it’s nabbed away.
That you would know what I mean when I would dramatize to say that anticipation feels like exhaustion and achievement feels like an obligation.
Or maybe I make no sense to you.
But that hardly matters.
Remember when I single-handedly jinxed the weather?
What’s funny is, you’d think by now we’d know not to hyperbolize a glimpse of warmth in South Bend’s January.
Still, we magnify the ephemera, and brevity makes us giddy. It almost feels like we’re in on the same joke, one that doesn’t quite land. That’s pretty nice to think about.
So enough of the melancholy, and more assumptions — let’s just surmise it together.
I’ll bet that you still have your quiet margins, that there’s cracks in between the noise. And there, you can make lists that aren’t at all about what you have or haven’t done. People on the internet love to call it a gratitude journal, but I’ll bet your list is too subtle and sophisticated to call it such a sappy thing.
Things that make it better: thick socks, wired headphones, calling home, banana cake, clean sheets, fresh air.
Things that never change. Things that are coming up. Things you avoid because you like them too much. People you avoid because you like them too much. People that you don’t talk to anymore but are forever lovely to you. People that you talk to every day and are forever lovely to you.
Contrary to what that wellness influencer drones on about on the Eternal Feed, you don’t really need a gratitude journal. You know the list. You don’t even need a pen to embody it, because it’s all fact and it’s all solid. All the brevity and transience in the world couldn’t diminish it.
Or maybe I make no sense to you.
You can suppose that I may eventually slip in the Trader Joe’s parking lot (knock on wood though), that in due course I may make it past the 2 p.m. slump without coffee, and that I may be staring at the ceiling fan tomorrow. But while doing so, I may ultimately conclude that we are quite wonderful.
You can certainly assume I’m categorically confused and can never cut back my screen time, and that this all feels curiously vulnerable to share — and that you make total sense to me.
Reyna Lim is a senior studying business analytics. She enjoys sharing her opinions. You can contact her at slim6@nd.edu.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
Reyna Lim The Overshare
On Meatless Mondays and state terror
Olemo Gordon Brian
The Double-Giraffe View
Dear Comrade,
A good friend, in encouraging me to take good care of my health, once told me, “there’s no revolution without you.”
He meant that all our aspirations come to nought if we are not there to actualize them. This analysis can be extended to the state of our planet today. The locus of our fight(s) will have to shift if we have nowhere to plant our feet. There are sectional causes and there are all encompassing ones.
We have all witnessed the unfortunate but recurring events in California where even the affluent have not been spared. That’s the big lesson in the battle for the health of the planet: wealth can insulate from the effects of our war against the environment, but only to a point. To imagine ‘Planet B’ is just irresponsible. We all have a role to play in ensuring this one remains liveable if we side with the optimists that in this age of the anthropocene, our agency can at least help us mitigate the present and latent effects of the climate crisis.
What is our role in this crisis? That appears to always be the question this column always poses. Let’s start from what “the state” could do.
After the effortless ban on personal electric vehicles (PEVs) on campus last semester, I have no doubts whatsoever about the despotic power of the Notre Dame state. Right from his inauguration speech, our new University president, his brilliance only matched by his ambition, has already scored a lot of victories. He can keep this streak going by decreeing that starting Fall, all students take a course on the current state of our environment and our planet — as a graduation requirement akin to the college and University requirements.
This would only take an Executive Order (EO) since the personnel already exist on the faculty side. This EO is an absolute necessity in a world where some leaders proudly deny the existence of an existential crisis. It is also within the mandate of a university — the site of knowledge production and dissemination. Additionally, many graduates of this school eventually go on to dedicate their lives in one way or another to the further destruction of this planet. Such a course would help inspire some
sleepless nights. This columnist is amenable to reciting Laudato si all semester if that’s what it will take for this EO to materialize. This compulsory ecological crisis course should be an easy win.
The harder task will be taking on the student body to change our culture of consumerism. It is difficult primarily because of the general skepticism many of us have come to develop towards state power though recently certain sections of this country have developed an enlarged appetite for strong men. But since we didn’t put up anything of a fight against the PEV edict, I am optimistic in the power of the ND state to easily prevail here.
Readers may scorn at this seemingly disingenuous interest in a strong incursion of our state in our lives. Whenever I think about these questions of what can easily amount to state terror, I’m always reminded of an episode in a previous institution I attended. A small but loud section of the student body whom we disparaged advocated that the state encode into law “meatless mondays.” We ate meat everyday (Readers from Africa would understand why this was surprising).
The argument of this camp was simple — daily beef consumption motivates more production and contributes significantly to global carbon emissions and we wouldn’t die from this act of solidarity with mother nature.
Most of us had not educated ourselves well enough about the extent of the climate crisis. The only thing we were certain of was that our school’s carbon footprint was inconsequential and so our collective sacrifice, however admirable, wouldn’t amount to much. There were some merits to these arguments.
Compared to Notre Dame, our carbon footprint was a drop in St. Joseph Lake. So we thought these “extremists” were just blowing things out of proportion and trying to stay relevant as many young people were in the habit of. A lot of global south countries advance similar arguments today vis-a-vis their industrially advanced counterparts. “Our small actions are inconsequential when weighed against countries like the US and China,” the argument goes.
But we were wrong, in addition to being ignorant — a sorry combination. We’ve said before in this column that “the people” shouldn’t be romanticized. They can be thoroughly misled to their own detriment. The state should not always be distrusted, especially in existential matters of this sort.
Our beloved university is located in North America — the home and global exemplar of consumerism. Its students, the majority of whom are domestic, are not spared by its sway. Even those who join the ship from outside this country are often readily assimilated into this culture, one may argue, worse than their homebred counterparts. There’s something that earning a few greenbacks that Notre Dame’s current minimum wage does to one. Even things that you could once live comfortably without become “essentials” — there’s a brand by that name.
Consumerism, like individualism in this country, is the stuff of legend. Both inevitable results of capitalism on steroids. We would, for example, prefer to all own our own cars than invest in efficient public transport systems. I’m sure comrades who have visited Europe will attest to the superiority of their model. In London, walking to and fro SOAS University of London (about an hour) was a welcome convenience. For me and the tube, it was love at first sight. I wonder how many comrades ever entertain the idea of agitating for a more efficient public transport system as opposed to how to get the next car — necessary as it is.
Do we really need all this stuff?
I know a comrade who moved into a room with a 45 inch TV, and because it didn’t fit with the aesthetic of the room, purchased a bigger one — almost double the size. I was shocked, to say the least. This is the age where we choose aesthetics over functionality.
Does everyone really need to go to Walmart or Target at the start of their time here to purchase all the things their forebears had? We are all entitled to the “good” things in life. But it appears this ecological crisis we’ve plunged ourselves into will really discipline our tastes. Do we all really need to purchase our own cloth hangers, carpets, futons, previously scooters, bicycles, utensils, TVs?
Do we have a choice in answering this question, considering the present balance sheet?
Olemo Gordon Brian is a senior at Notre Dame studying political economy. He is deeply interested in Africa’s development and the emancipation of man. You can contact Olemo at bolemo@nd.edu.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
All that we touch, we change
My friendship with Sofia is one of those rare relationships that managed to scrape its way out of the Instagram DM. Back in 2020, we bonded over the fact that she liked making fun of Ed Sheeran. I also liked making fun of Ed Sheeran. Among our shared harassment of the English pop star, we also discovered we were both lifelong fans of Notre Dame, liked to read books and do crosswords and were both equally terrified of the transition to college. It was nice to have a “friend” going into freshman year, even if I’d never met that “friend” in person, and there was no saying if that friendship would even outlast the initial superficiality of the DM phase. But thankfully, with Sofia, it did. Sofia works as a tour guide at the Raclin Murphy. As she showed me around the museum’s most recent exhibit — Clarissa Tossin’s “All That You Touch, You Change” — I was reminded of how lucky I am to have friends like Sofia. Friends who challenge you, who are passionate about art, language and culture. I am forever grateful that our bond survived the perfunctory stages of social media until now, our final semester in college, and that, throughout all that time, Sofia continues to teach me things.
The title of the Raclin Murphy exhibit draws from the opening lines of the novel “Parable of the Sower” by Octavia Butler. Serendipitously, this is the very book my fiction writing teacher assigned me to read over the weekend. Butler’s novel is easy to read, but dense in subject matter, centering around a fifteenyear-old girl who attempts to survive in a dystopian world. Lauren must fight against violence, political greed and climate catastrophe in an apocalyptic Los Angeles. Though it was written in the early 1990s, “Parable of the Sower” describes the present day with eerie accuracy, even predicting that in 2025, California would be destroyed by a wave of rampant fires.
Just like the novel, Tossin’s exhibit focuses on climate change, overconsumption and colonization. Her art blends the ancient with the modern, pulling from early Mayan tradition and pitting it against today’s tech giants. Tossin weaves together cardboard Amazon packaging to make a statement about waste and capitalism.
The highlight of the exhibit is “Encontro das águas” or “Meeting of Waters” — a gargantuan tapestry depicting the confluence of the Amazon and Rio Negro rivers. The piece interweaves vibrant blue and green paints with a Google satellite image of the bodies of water. By fusing technology with the natural world, Tossin asks not just how what we touch changes us, but what stains our touch might leave behind. As corporations like Google and Apple utilize the Amazon and other ecosystems for their own profit, land that once belonged to indigenous peoples is now being decimated, polluted and appropriated.
The exhibit had a lot to say, and so did Sofia. My friend did a fantastic job of navigating me through it all. As we worked our way past walls made of Tossin’s handprints and a giant sculpture of a burnt tree, I let Sofia’s passion guide me and inspire me. Everyone needs an art history friend — someone to open your mind to compositions from creatives across the world and to challenge the habits you may have (such as ordering way too much stuff online). Everyone needs someone to make them reflect on the ways in which their touch might damage the environment around them and the steps they can take to ensure we have a cleaner future.
As Sofia and I walked side by side throughout the museum, I thought of the one word that could tie together both Tossin’s exhibit, Butler’s novel and my relationship with Sofia: Change. Change, in many ways, is a negative concept. Changes in political powers rid the Mayans and other indigenous cultures of their freedom. Change is brought about by tech giants who pollute our waters and destroy our forests. Change has already occurred, and it will keep coming.
But in some ways, change is also a hopeful concept. The protagonist in “Parable of the Sower” doesn’t believe in a god, at least not in the traditional sense. To Lauren, “God is Change,” and this change is inevitable. Change is something we can expect and rely upon. Lauren lets this change inspire her as she turns to the stars, looking past an apocalyptic Earth to space colonization. Clarissa Tossin also sees change as something we can take advantage of, encouraging Indigenous people to reclaim their land and art as the tide shifts in some governments.
I think it’s true that “All That We Touch, We Change.” Every needless Amazon package we order, every Ziploc bag we throw away, every tank of gas we waste, we touch someone somewhere, probably negatively impacting their homes. We create change through our everyday choices and in our everyday relationships. We are the sum of the people we surround ourselves with, and what they think also affects what we think. Which is why we must surround ourselves with friends like Sofia, who encourage us to think deeply and better ourselves.
I think of the ways in which I have changed since those first days Sofia slid into my DMs. I still love books and crosswords, I still love Notre Dame and I still enjoy poking fun at Ed Sheeran. But I have also been molded by my mistakes and desires. I am not afraid of change, because change has made me who I am today. I wouldn’t want to be the same person I was four years ago. All That We Touch, We Change. But the direction of that change depends on how willing we are to learn. Tossin’s exhibit will be at the Raclin Murphy until June 1.
Gracie Eppler is a senior business analytics and English major from St. Louis, MO. Her three top three things ever to exist are ‘70’s music, Nutella and Smith Studio 3, where she can be found dancing. You can reach her at geppler@nd.edu.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
Gracie Eppler The Soapbox
'APPLE CIDER VINEGAR': 'APPLE CIDER VINEGAR': THE GIRL WHO CRIED WOLF THE GIRL WHO CRIED WOLF
By SHEILA-MARIE MANYARA Scene Writer
Based on the novel “The Woman Who Fooled the World,” “Apple Cider Vinegar” follows the scandal of Belle Gibson, an Australian wellness influencer who created the app “The Whole Pantry” and faked her brain cancer diagnosis. In 2015, Gibson claimed to have brain cancer and cured it with diet and alternative medicine. While no one has been able to disprove her health claims, she did admit to lying about cancer and was subsequently found guilty of charity and financial fraud.
“Apple Cider Vinegar” is not completely nonfictional; there are characters and events that have either been changed slightly or completely created by the writers. The series follows other storylines that depict the consequences of Gibson’s lies. The most heartbreaking storyline was Fiona’s: a mother whose 8-year-old child, Hunter, was diagnosed with the same cancer Belle claimed to have had. Fiona mentions to Belle that she is trying to get her son to a specialist surgeon who requires $120,000 (Australian dollars) to perform a very risky surgery that could save Hunter’s life. Belle offers to raise the money through her app and sponsorships, but, of course, Fiona never gets that money, and the series ends with her family’s hope shattered
as Hunter’s treatment is terminated, implying his inevitable death as a cause of Belle’s lies.
The show also focuses on Belle’s social media rival, Milla Blake, based on the real-life Jessica Ainscough. In the series, Milla develops cancerous bumps on her arm and the doctors tell her her arm must be amputated to stop the cancer from spreading. Milla believes that amputation is wrong and turns down conventional medical treatment and goes to a wellness retreat in Mexico that focuses on diet, juice and coffee enemas. She creates a blog sharing her journey of beating cancer and keeping her arm, except she didn’t. She never beat cancer. She was lying. By the time she swallows her pride and admits to her father and doctors that she still has the bumps on her arm, the cancer has spread to her brain, liver and pancreas so there isn’t anything they can do for her, and she eventually succumbs to the cancer.
Both Belle and Milla created their online identities around a lie to be seen. In Milla’s case, the doctors were correct in their medical approach, but they talked down to her. They didn’t think she was valid in not going through with an amputation since they’d seen it so many times before. Milla just became another patient to them, one they didn’t see as a person outside of the problems she presented to them. Part of her online blog was trying to prove to her doctors that she was right to make them see her. The show depicts Belle’s life
before social media as less than desirable. Her coworkers didn’t care about her, her mother wasn’t present and she had no friends. No one showed up to her baby shower. As soon as she lied about her cancer diagnosis online, she was validated and seen by those around her. The series also highlights more of Belle’s false medical claims dating back to when she was about 12 years old and faked a heart attack. Her behavior is consistent with Munchausen syndrome, but there has been no official diagnosis made either in the show or in real life.
As unethical as the wellness influencers were, there is some level of social responsibility that the show addresses. Many of Belle and Milla’s lies are ridiculous, but people still believe them because they wanted to believe them. Belle’s followers wanted to believe that any ailment could be cured by juice. Fiona wanted to believe Belle had cancer because it would mean there was hope for her son. And they wanted to believe their own lies too. Milla wanted to believe that she was actually better. Throughout the series, Belle did not admit to or hint at lying because she needed to believe she was the version of herself that she created. It was the version she was dying to be.
Contact Sheila-Marie Manyara at smanyara01@saintmarys.edu
MOTOWN MOTOWN MYSTIQUE MYSTIQUE
By SHANNON LIPSCOMB Scene Writer
For the third year in a row, the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center hosted “A Tribute to Motown.” I attended the first iteration two years ago, which was then located in the Patricia George Decio Theatre with space for 350 music fans. This year, “Motown” was held in the Leighton Concert Hall, providing space for over double the amount of attendees.
The move across the hall was well worth it. The crowd grew, and so did the “Motown” show.
When I decided to see the original “Motown,” I wasn’t sure what to expect. I timidly walked over to DPAC alone and stood in will call, since I had underestimated the turnout for the event, and watched as fan after fan streamed in. Most were dressed to the nines and ready to witness Black excellence in the form of that night’s tribute show.
Now, “Motown” has become more than just a oneoff show. Members of the South Bend community (and myself) purchased tickets well before the week of the show to score a ticket for the celebration of the month. The show itself has become a true staple of DPAC, and in addition to being hosted during Black History Month, “Motown” brings in artists from the South Bend area and beyond to showcase their talent through the classic
hits that emerged from the famous Detroit record label. Background vocalists and a full band graced the stage to accompany every artist.
“Motown” feels exactly like a family cookout — people are enjoying food and drinks, listening to good, soul music and dancing like no one is watching. Although the older “Motown” crowd hesitated to stand up and dance, Leighton was filled with groove as DJ Macmane played the hits from the choral terrace behind the main stage. Motown lovers from all eras were present as DJ Macmane did a roll call, spanning from the “50s babies” to the “2000s kids.”
“Whatchu know about this music?” The lady next to me asked as I stood up and danced to Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up.”
“More than enough,” I replied. She had heard me shout for the last roll call, exposing myself as one of the youngest people in the room. She smiled at me and grabbed my hand. At an event like “Motown,” age doesn’t matter. What matters is the way the music makes you feel.
Emorja Roberson served as the host for the night. Roberson was the first African American to obtain a master of sacred music in vocal performance and a doctor of musical arts in choral conducting from the University of Notre Dame. Dressed in a Dapper Dan “DAP GAP” hoodie, he led the night and brought us to church. He even did a church roll call for all of the believers in the audience.
This year’s event presented five artists who told stories and worked the crowd.
Returner and crowd favorite Janet Gunn did renditions of Gladys Knight & the Pips, singing the original version of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and “If I Were Your Woman.” Each time, she emerged in a new outfit and sang directly to the audience. Darryl Buchanan, a South Bend native who toured with The Temptations and Richard Street, played The Miracles and Marvin Gaye.
Larry “Choclett P” Redding performed Otis Redding and Troy T. Thomas Jr. performed “Reach Out, I’ll Be There” by the Four Tops. After their solo hits, the pair collaborated for a rendition of “I Wish” by Stevie Wonder. Terrilyn Douglas, from Gary, Indiana, sang classics and even brought the night to the 1980s with “Square Biz” by Teena Marie.
Showing respect through clapping, dancing and words of praise, “Motown” enjoyed an interactive crowd. Leighton Concert Hall was filled with love and the music of Motown. This event has the following to become a certified DPAC classic.
My only caveat? Having to hope that I can make it back to South Bend next February to see “Motown” once again.
Contact Shannon Lipscomb at slipsco3@nd.edu
BENGAL BOUTS
Bengal Bouts quarterfinal results: Ring A
By TYLER REIDY and NOAH CAHILL Sports Editor and Associate Sports Editor
On Monday night, Dahnke Ballroom hosted the quarterfinals of the 95th annual Bengal Bouts. Here’s how each of the contests in Ring A played out.
Thomas “Slim” Etchart def. Matty “Amore”
Kavanaugh
The opening round of the 95th annual Bengal Bouts quarterfinal round took place in Ring A. Kavanaugh attacked the body aggressively early and stayed on the front foot early. Etchart used his multiple-inch height advantage to put together a few counters late in the round. Kavanaugh continued to pressure in round two with a focus on attacking the body. His pace did not slow in round three, but Etchart managed to string together several blows, never letting his opponent get too close. Despite Kavanaugh’s consistent intensity, Etchart remained poised and utilized his reach to secure the victory by split decision.
Emiliano “Sleeping Brute” Gomez def. Noah “The Rocket” Crockett
Gomez and Crockett came out the gates throwing with very little regard for human life. Several massive blows were traded with very few blocks held. The round ended after a massive headshot from Gomez before the bell. The pace slowed down in round two as both fighters tired. Gomez wasted very little energy between periodic attacks to the body. Crockett leaned in on the attack early in round three, sensing an opportunity. Gomez held strong, though, and responded with several counters of his own. His early aggression and strategic pacing throughout earned him a victory by unanimous decision.
Richie “The Don” Mistichelli def. Bruce “Bulldog” Alvarez
Mistichelli blitzed Alvarez early in round one, but the first-year more than held his own. A combination of adept head dodges and swift counterpunches put him in front early as he weathered the storm of strikes. Alvarez lost his footing early in round two and ate a couple of massive blows from Mistichelli, who dominated the frame. Round three would define the fight, and both fighters knew it. Despite running nearly empty, they unloaded haymakers. In the end, Mistichelli’s relentless
attack was far too much for the depleted Alvarez, who wore down after his strong opening round. The junior left with a unanimous decision victory.
Charlie “Pride of the Palisades” Collins def. Smith “Ranger” McGruder
McGruder and Collins fearlessly attacked in round one, trading several violent strikes. They both took serious punishment in the round, placing them on even ground after the break. Collins got on the front foot, forcing McGruder into the corner early. While the sophomore was able to connect on a few counters, Collins controlled the pace throughout round two. The third round was the highlight of the fight. Both fighters left everything in the ring, but Collins did enough in the end for the split decision victory.
Joshua “Mighty Mouse” Rivadeneira def. Nathan “Fourks” McLeod
The two fighters took defensive approaches in round one, only trading a few blows between closely guarded exchanges. Rivadeneira started to put together several combos in round two, but visibly tired as the round progressed, taking some hits from McLeod on the counter. Both fought their most aggressive round in the final frame, running on fumes by the end. McLeod’s conservative approach would cost him in the end, as the firstyear Rivadeneira did enough for the split decision win.
Michael “Crispy Chicken” Rauch def. Robert “The Turkish Mindset” Bektas
The senior vice president of Bengal Bouts, Michael Rauch was sharp in round one, connecting on multiple jabs to the body of Bektas. The junior had a strong showing in round two, however, finding Rauch’s body with several sharp combos. Rauch responded late in the round, pushing Bektas into the corner and setting up an exciting finale. Despite clear fatigue, Rauch was poised, using his reach to pepper the body of Bektas and avoid counters in the process. Bektas became even more worn as a result, as the vice president would outlast him en route to a unanimous decision victory.
Creed “Apollo” Leathers def. Joshua “The Tomato” Schlemmer
Fighting an uphill battle against men’s boxing club president Creed Leathers, the freshman from Pittsburgh
held his own. With both fighters energized by raucous supporters, Schlemmer took the upper hand late in the second round before Leathers dealt a series of heavy shots to start the third. As the final 10 seconds arrived, Leathers connected three more times, prevailing by unanimous decision.
Matt “Double Tap” Flowers def. Dylan “Cha Cha” Cha
Neither fighter gained much separation throughout the bout, but a consistent start and a push to the ropes late in the second round put Flowers in the driver’s seat. Despite Cha landing a powerful lefty hook in the final round, Flowers held on and emerged victorious by split decision.
Gavin “The Beard” Carr def. Griffin “The Gladiator” Capece
As the second consecutive upperclassman bout wore on, an exhausted Capece couldn’t muster much attacking strength. Carr did, going right after his opponent and succeeding on a pair of lefty swings in the third round. The victory ultimately went to the bearded one by unanimous decision.
Luke “The Longhorn” Williams def. Ben “Thunderjaw” McVeigh
Boxing with the homering advantage as a South Bend native, McVeigh traded blows with Williams early on. Williams, however, had enough in store to control the final round and catch McVeigh with a couple of follow-up hooks. He walked away as the winner by split decision.
Jackson “Amo” Amorosa def. Colby “Goldilocks” Whitehouse
Green jackets decorated the crowd as Whitehouse and Amorosa, each of Dillon Hall, squared off in the 167-pound bout. Amorosa had his counterpart overwhelmed, particularly during a second round in which he unleashed nearly non-stop blows. The trend continued into the final round, as Amorosa nearly fell down from pursuing his opening ambush so vehemently. He’d stand up as the victor by unanimous decision.
Jack “Addy” Regan def. William “Blanco” White
In one of the night’s most physically dissimilar bouts, the stocky White opposed
the lanky Regan in a seniorfreshman contest. Though Regan would power through a bloody nose and a surge from White down the stretch, his body of work to start, which included a couple of potent right-handed uppercuts in the second round, got him the win by unanimous decision.
Brendan “Classic” McGinn def. Patrick “Dr. Evil” Doyle
The physical bout between Pennsylvanians once again brought a nosebleed to the gold corner. McGinn controlled the battle throughout, finding several connections in tight and going on to win by unanimous decision.
Matt “Two Cup” Turzai def. Sebastian “Smack” Makhlouf
Dominant from the start, Turzai had all the right moves in round one, moving swiftly with Makhlouf’s swings and dealing successful responses. He would open the next two rounds by sending his opponent to the floor in the second and leaning him over the ropes in the final, emerging as the obvious victor by unanimous decision.
Andrew “Molotov” Molinsky def. Sam “The Hammer” Hemmersmeier Molinsky had his way throughout the all-underclassman bout, as the sophomore pushed his first-year counterpart back with repeated attacking bursts. Though Hemmersmeier found some success late in rounds, forcing a count in the first, Molinsky sealed the deal with a powerful shot that brought on another count midway through round three. “Molotov” would emerge victorious by unanimous decision.
Jake “Your Friendly Neighborhood” Loughran def. Riley “The Punisher” Carlin
Loughran was none too friendly to Carlin in this clash of sophomores, landing major hooks in the first and third rounds. He also forced a count in each of those rounds and finished the fight by knocking a piece of debris off Carlin’s red mask. A unanimous decision awarded Loughran the victory.
Charlie “Chili” Schmidt def. Steven “Showtime” Vanden Noven
A senior from Morrissey Manor, Schmidt used a series of right-handed uppercuts to get a leg up on his
opponent. And although the pace of the bout slowed in round two, Schmidt’s did not. With Vanden Noven bleeding significantly from the nose, the bouts finished early with Schmidt the winner by unanimous decision.
Michael “Honeybadger” Heffernan def. Jacob “The Illest” Cruz Crowd noise drowned out each breath of these two Pennsylvanian foes, who each brought fervent supporters to the bout. Heffernan controlled the fight early with a firm and steady left hand, but Cruz rallied with an immediate drive to the ropes that started round three. However, Heffernan overcame the move and finished strong, capturing the victory by split decision.
Isaac “Chris P.” Culp def. Finn “Finn Mahoney” Mahoney
Culp was crisp in his performance in the 37th quarterfinal bout, never giving Mahoney much of a chance to go on the offensive. He finally did in the waning moments of the final round, but it was too little, too late at that point. Culp ignited his Fisher Hall compatriots, winning by unanimous decision.
Seth “D.” Pickford def. Jake “Chillah” Smalley
Pickford opened the heavyweight bout with the attitude of a raging bull, cornering Smalley and tagging him with a few vicious rights. Though Smalley briefly capitalized on a tiring Pickford in the second round, the senior eventually answered each pushback. He’d go on to win by split decision.
Mark “Mark Onders” Onders def. Varun “Signapore Slinger” Taneja
The final bout featured two competitors from near and far. Onders, a native of Cleveland, battled the Singapore-based Taneja into a pause in the action, hitting him hard early in the fight. The night’s last result went the way of Onders by refereestopped decision.
The next round
The semifinal round of the Bengal Bouts will take place at 7 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 24, in the Dahnke Ballroom.
Contact Tyler Reidy at treidy3@nd.edu and Noah Cahill at ncahill2@nd.edu
Happy Birthday: Take your time, think matters through, and refrain from following the crowd or making premature choices based on partial facts and figures. Pay more attention to your health, emotional well-being, and relationship with others. Look for natural solutions geared toward building mental and physical strength and making lifestyle changes that help you gain confidence. Pay attention to where every dollar goes, and you’ll find a way to lower your overhead. Your numbers are 5, 17, 25, 27, 33, 42, 49.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Take the uncertainty out of the equation by asking direct questions, assessing situations confidently, and determining and doing what’s best for you. Handle relationships practically when money is involved. Maintaining integrity and treating everyone fairly and with dignity is essential. Love and self-respect will bolster your confidence.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Take note of who is doing what and align yourself with the people eager to reach the same conclusion or goal as you. Opportunities will develop through the connections you make and the conversations you pursue. Big talkers will be compelling but unrealistic. Rework concepts that intrigue you to suit your needs.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Fixate on outperforming yourself and anyone who challenges you. Generosity is superb if you are careful not to let anyone take advantage of you. You may want everyone to like you, but be careful who you trust with your secrets. Say no to anyone who tempts or tries to lead you astray.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Networking and social events will give you a chance to test your skills, concepts, and plans on people who can offer worthy insight into something you want to pursue and perhaps even connect you to someone who can help you turn your ideas into something tangible. Choose health-conscious eating and drinking habits.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Pay attention to home, family, and domestic matters. Take care of how you use your energy to get the highest return. A healthy attitude, fitness, and expanding your mind and qualifications will raise your awareness regarding new possibilities and how best your demands are heard and met.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Applied pressure will backfire. If you want change, be willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen. Size up what’s entailed and restructure your plans to meet the demands. Put a set time and budget in place and stick to your blueprint. Take nothing for granted and verify the information.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Be open to suggestions, meeting halfway, and compromise, especially when it involves money or domestic matters. Turn events into a chance to connect with people who share your interests and directional pursuits. A quick update to your appearance will give you a fresh look and the confidence to push forward persistently.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): You are on a roll; stop wasting time, dig in, learn all you can, and explore the possibilities. Venture out and connect with people who can help you reach your goal. A networking event will offer insight into how best to display, promote, and seal deals. Say yes, and enjoy the outcome.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): You have better technique than most, so don’t sell yourself short. Let your bravado set in, and let your experience shine through. Refuse to let anyone outmaneuver you, using lies and underhanded tactics to make you look inadequate or less qualified. Put your best foot forward and play to win.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Embrace change, sign up for something you enjoy, and make personal improvements that make you feel good about yourself. Step in a direction that requires a commitment. Once you make your mind up, start heading down the right path. Once you find your comfort zone, everything will fall into place.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Rearrange your space to suit your needs. Designate a place to wind down and to get fit. Balance is necessary if you want to succeed. Make changes based on your needs. Don’t be a follower when setting standards and routines directly linked to your needs, which will help you find your happy place.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): You can think big, but when it comes to achieving your goals, slimline your plans to suit your budget. Taking your time and choosing to do things in small increments will help you maintain control, ease stress, and enjoy finishing what you start. Live within your means.
Birthday Baby: You are energetic, innovative, and proactive. You are idealistic and generous.
BENGAL BOUTS
Bengal Bouts quarterfinal results: Ring B
By TYLER REIDY and NOAH CAHILL Sports Editor and Associate Sports Editor
On Monday night, Dahnke Ballroom hosted the quarterfinals of the 95th annual Bengal Bouts. Here’s how each of the contests in Ring B played out.
Patrick “The Farmer” Fitzgerald def. Ryan “McLaine” McEllen
In Ring B’s first round of the evening, McEllen and Fitzgerald traded some heavy shots to the head. Round two saw another hotly contested trade-off between the two fighters, who both tired as the round progressed. Now running on fumes, both fighters emptied the tank in round three, their technique breaking down with each passing second. In the end, Fitzgerald landed enough hits to emerge with the split decision victory.
Will “Socal” Brady vs. Ryan “Ginger” Hays
Brady and Hays were cagy in round one. Both took conservative approaches to the round but were able to land some blows when they increased their pressure. Round two had early fireworks. Brady found success in the round, even forcing a fall from Hays before the bell. Hays was not deterred in round three, however. He connected on several headshots but continued to take punishment from Brady’s counters. Both fighters were reduced to a zombie’s pace in the final moments as they mustered their final swings. Despite a valiant response from Hays after his second-round stumble, Brady took the split decision win.
Ben “Thimbus” Werner def. Sebastian “Super” Villa Werner attacked with wideranging hooks early, but both took defensive approaches to a tight first round. Villa’s unorthodox stance, leaning towards his opponent, was successful on defense, but lacked the pairing of attacking punches. That changed in round three at the urging of his coaches, who repeated exclamations
of “push forward!” and “keep throwing!” In doing so, however, Werner was afforded the opportunity to return punishment and take the split decision win.
Erick “Wutang Warrior” Valdez def. Charlie “Uplift Mofo Party Plan” Griffin
Valdez was in full control in round one, stringing together clean combinations to the head of Griffin. The second round took a similar tune, with Valdez staying poised on the offensive, leaving Griffin struggling for a response. He had more to give in round three, but ultimately tired from enduring the multitude of blows. Valdez’s impressive performance earned him a victory by unanimous decision.
Brooks “BMC” McConnell def. Manny “Arch” Nuñez
McConnell’s enormous connection early in round one set the tone. Nuñez survived the ref’s count but continued to suffer from the ensuing attacks. In round two, Nuñez was made to survive another count after McConnell’s massive right caught him once again. The senior continued to rain fire, leaving Nuñez hanging on for dear life entering the final frame. He showed fight in round three, but could not do enough to stop McConnell from taking home the unanimous decision victory.
Sebastian “The Portuguese Stallion” Pires def. Yanni “Quadzilla” Vu
The two Californian seniors opened the bout on the aggressive, as Pires pummeled Vu in the opening seconds before Vu responded, getting Pires turned around. Their pace would slow into the final two rounds before Pires took over the fight by taking Vu to the ropes in the final minute. Pires claimed the victory by split decision.
Matt “Moo Moo Meadows” Kirkham def. Stephen “The Chef” Giovacco
Fatigue took its toll on both boxers, especially late in the rounds. However, the Palo Alto, California, native out of the blue corner had more left in the
tank, pushing Giovacco to the ropes midway through round three. Perhaps inspired by his cow-costumed fans, Kirkham captured the win by unanimous decision.
Zachary “Obi” Egan def. JM “El Gringo” Sauerbrey
After a fairly balanced start to the all-sophomore bout, Egan took over down the stretch putting Sauerbrey on the defensive. In the last seconds of the final round, Sauerbrey faded and needed multiple stoppages, leading to a unanimous-decision victory for Egan.
Ryan “The Prophet” Moses def. Robbie “Lobster” Donahue
Moses must have received some sort of covenant on his way into the final round. Though the first part of the bout played out evenly, “The Prophet” went on the offensive down the stretch, landing a handful of key shots in the center of the right. As a result, he finished as the victor by split decision.
Caz “Manian Devil” Kotsen def. Michael “Mozzarell” Giovacco
In this showdown of New Jersey natives, Kotsen got better as the bout moved along. By the time the final round wrapped up, he had Giovacco moving all about the ring on defense, peppering his opponent in an act of in-state superiority. A unanimous decision would confirm the victory for Kotsen.
Henry “Goldilocks” Phillips def. Br. John “The Monk” Santa Ana
In a contest between a sophomore and graduate student, the younger Phillips had his way for the vast majority of the bout. He was especially dominant in the second round, landing a couple of stout lefties over the top. Phillips would continue his allout attack into the final round, landing punches in almost every which way en route to a unanimous-decision victory.
Jack “Reacher” Helzner def. Max “Sweet Tooth” Lowery
This bout featured perhaps the most exciting first round of the night, as Helzner and Lowery went relentlessly flying around the ring to start. However, as his supporters raucously rained down chants of “Helzner! Helzner!,” the man from the blue corner turned the wild bout in his favor. He’d finish the winner by unanimous decision.
John “Sugar J” Christoforetti def. John Austin “ Old Dominion” Hatch
In this contest between natives of the DMV, “Sugar J” had himself a sweet performance. Consistent throughout all three rounds, the Washington, D.C., product dispatched his foe from Arlington, Virginia, winning by unanimous decision.
Owen “Chami-Man” Serkes def. Charlie “Tubs” Gussen
Despite stumbling early, Serkes gave Gussen all he could handle, taking him to the ropes with a relentless attack in round two. His success continued into round three as Gussen struggled to keep his hands up, resulting in a count midway through the final round. The Long Islander from Siegfried Hall picked up the victory by unanimous decision.
Kyle “The Sheriff” Macker def. Collins “CTrain” Trainor
With a noisy and ruthless pack of supporters behind him “The Sheriff” laid down the law and left his opponent in a tough spot. A timeout for injury stopped the second round and brought the bout to an end after two rounds, as Macker walked away with a victory by unanimous decision.
Max Soyster “Soyster” Heinz def. Luke “Lights Out” Simard
Thumping his adversary with a litany of right-handed swings, Heinz had Simard bloodied before the first round concluded. He would continue to attack with a massive success rate as cleanups
continued between rounds in Simard’s corner. Heinz captured the victory by unanimous decision.
Michael “Deagle” Nilsen def. Kolbe “The Cheese” Schlosser
Neither fighter gained much of an advantage in the first round, as both were content to defend well and enter the second round even. However, Nilsen made his move to start round two, taking a few shots at Schlosser’s gut. The man in blue found additional success up high in the final round, securing a win by unanimous decision.
Samuel “Sam I Am” Hatch def. Emerson “Scrappy” Carella
Hatch controlled the bout early on, but Carella turned the momentum around with a surge midway through the second round. Despite the latter corner’s pleas for an uppercut or two, Carella never found one, continuing to throw hooks at his opponent. Hatch’s good start held up, as he won by split decision.
Tommy “T-Rex” Santarelli def. Jakob “Rooster” Kotz Santarelli thrived throughout this battle of first-years, forcing counts on Kotz at some point in all three rounds. After struggling with his balance early on, Kotz went into an injury stoppage late in round two, and Santarelli emerged victorious by unanimous decision.
William “B.O.A” Johnson def. Mark “Red Hulk” Hennin
Although Hennin moved into the driver’s seat first in round two, his didn’t stay there long. Johnson, the younger fighter in the ring by two class years, took over to end the second and intensified his attack into the third. Using a lethal combination of straight lefts and righty uppercuts, “B.O.A.” took the victory by unanimous decision.
Contact Tyler Reidy at treidy3@nd.edu and Noah Cahill at ncahill2@nd.edu
Irish finish strong again in Battle at the Beach
By TYLER REIDY Sports Editor
After going 3-3 in their opening weekend, the Notre Dame softball team revisited the Southeast to compete in the Battle at the Beach tournament. The event, hosted by Coastal Carolina University, featured five schools, including the Irish, the Chanticleers, Marist, Kent State and Towson.
As they did in Clearwater during the opening weekend, the Irish started slowly before dominating their second half of games. They lost to Marist (6-0) and Coastal Carolina (8-7) before shutting out both Towson (9-0) and Kent State (5-0), moving to 5-5 on the year.
Notre Dame 0, Marist 6 Marist jumped on the Irish in their first game of the weekend,
putting three runs on graduate right-hander Alexis Laudenslager and chasing her in the second inning. The Red Foxes went deep in each of the first three innings, as Miah McDonald homered in the first and third frames, while Samantha Rogers left the building in the second. Senior right-hander Shannon Becker would pitch the rest of the way for the Irish, handling 4 ⅔ innings while conceding
two runs on a Sienna Kunze single in the fifth.
On the other side, Marist starter Kiley Myers pitched efficiently and effectively, earning a completegame shutout. Across her seven innings, she threw 89 pitches and walked none, striking out two and conceding four hits. Only senior catcher Rachel Allen found success multiple times against Myers, going two for two. Senior infielder
Anna Holloway added a thirdinning double after Myers had retired each of her first seven batters faced.
Notre Dame 7, Coastal Carolina 8
Notre Dame’s Friday finale contained multiple lead changes and a walk-off win for the Chanticleers.
Both teams scored in the first inning, as sophomore infielder
Addison Amaral brought in senior outfielder Emily Tran with an opposite-way double after her leadoff triple. Coastal Carolina answered against junior right-hander Micaela Kastor, as Georgia Hood collected her first of four hits with an RBI single.
The Irish would reclaim the lead in the third, as freshman infielder Kaia Cortes pulled her first collegiate home run. Delaney Keith answered for the Chanticleers in the bottom of the inning, belting a tworun blast that put the hosting team in the front. Allen then continued her impressive day, tying the game for the Irish with a solo shot down the left-field line.
After Notre Dame grabbed
ND MEN’S TENNIS
three runs on Amaral and Allen singles to take a 6-3 lead in the fifth, both starting pitchers departed. Kastor finished with three runs allowed, five hits, four walks and seven strikeouts in four frames, while Coastal Carolina’s Abby Henderson punched out five and allowed five runs on five hits while walking none in 4 innings.
Sophomore right-hander Kami Kamzik checked in for Kastor and initially pitched well, striking three in the bottom of the fifth and getting the Irish to the bottom of the seventh still up 6-3. However, down to their final two outs, the Chanticleers flipped a switch and rallied. Keith lit the spark with the second home run of the game, a solo blast to make it 6-4. A single, throwing error and stolen bases then put runners on second and third, setting up Maddy Jennings to even the score with a two-run
single. Coastal Carolina’s Nicolette Picone, who struck out eight in 3 ⅓ innings, remained in the game with Kamzik in the circle to start extra innings. The Irish scratched a run across in the top of the eighth, as sophomore utility player Sydny Poeck brought home initialplacement runner Amaral with a single. However, Coastal Carolina did them one better in the bottom half, as Clara Hudgens tied the score with a hit and came around to score the winning run on Hood’s walk-off single.
Towson 0, Notre Dame 9
Notre Dame’s pitching took over on Saturday, beginning with a shutout of Towson. Kamzik and freshman left-hander Brianne Weiss combined to put up zeros across five innings, with Kamzik punching out eight and Weiss three
in her scoreless fifth frame. Meanwhile, the Irish offense awakened with a five-run second inning. Freshman infielder Avery Houlihan started the scoring with a single, and the bases eventually loaded for a bases-clearing, twoout double from Cortes. Four more runs crossed home in the third inning, as Poeck, Tran and freshman utility player Caroline O’Brien each registered an RBI.
Kent State 0, Notre Dame 5
The Irish were even better in the circle against Kent State, shutting out the Golden Flashes across seven innings. Kastor took home the win, striking out seven and allowing only three hits in five innings, while Becker followed with three punchouts in two frames. Neither pitcher issued a walk.
On offense, Amaral got the Irish started fast by paying off Tran’s
leadoff single with a two-run home run. The opposite-field shot marked Amaral’s first long ball of the season. She would add her team-leading 12th RBI in the third inning, scoring Poeck. Notre Dame would score again in the fourth, when Kent State mishandled a bunt, and the sixth, when junior utility player Paige Cowley crushed her second home run of the year. Notre Dame’s Sunday game against Towson was canceled, ending the weekend early at 2-2. The Irish will visit Mobile, Alabama, for the Mardi Gras Classic this weekend to play Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (12:30 p.m. Friday), South Alabama (8 p.m. Friday and 5:30 p.m. Saturday), Maine (3 p.m. Saturday) and Lipscomb (11 a.m. Sunday).
Contact Tyler Reidy at treidy3@nd.edu
Irish drop first road match of season to Illinois
By TYLER REIDY Sports Editor
On Saturday, the Notre Dame men’s tennis team hit the road for the first time this spring to take on Illinois. Despite capturing the doubles point, the Irish fell to the Fighting Illini 4-3 score, moving to 8-2 on the season with less than two weeks remaining before ACC play begins. Riding a six-match winning streak into the Atkins Tennis Center at Urbana-Champaign,
FENCING
the Irish started fast with two doubles victories. Junior Sebastian Dominko and sophomore Kyran Magimay combined to beat Mathis Debru and William Mroz 6-4 score in the No. 2 match. Soon after, freshman Peter Nad and sophomore Chase Thompson defeated Tyler Bowers and Zach Viiala by a 6-3 margin in the No. 1 match, earning Notre Dame the night’s first point.
The Fighting Illini would then shift into gear to start singles
play, opening that portion of the night with three consecutive wins. Debru (6-3, 6-3) and Viiala (6-2, 6-2) each won comfortably, respectively knocking off freshman Luis Llorens Saracho in No. 6 singles and Magimay in No. 5 singles. The No. 1 match, which featured ranked opponents Kenta Miyoshi (No. 13) and Dominko (No. 33) also went the way of Illinois, as Miyoshi outlasted his opponent by a 6-4, 7-5 score.
At this point, the Fighting Illini
were up 3-1 and one more singles victory away from winning the overall match. However, Notre Dame made it difficult, winning back-to-back contests to tie the score at 3-3. Thompson handled Jeremy Zhang (6-3, 6-3) while Nad outdueled 79th-ranked Bowers (6-4, 7-5), turning all attention to the No. 2 court, the only one that held a three-set singles match. Senior Yu Zhang got the first set, winning 6-4. However, the 42nd-ranked Mroz answered
with a 6-2 victory in the second set before repeating with a 6-4 result in set three to secure the team win for Illinois.
The Irish will continue their Big Ten excursion by hosting Wisconsin at 4 p.m. Friday and visiting Northwestern at 1 p.m. Sunday. The two teams are a combined 8-6 to start the year and do not appear in any area of the ITA rankings.
Contact Tyler Reidy at treidy3@nd.edu
Irish fencers shine at 2025 Junior Olympics
By CHRIS DAILEY Sports Writer
The Notre Dame fencing team was heavily featured throughout the prestigious 2025 Junior Olympics in Charlotte, North Carolina. Both the men’s and women’s programs featured several fencers battling in the Division 1 field throughout the four-day competition, spanning from Feb. 14-17. Fresh off an undefeated showing at the Benguient Classic, Magda Skarbonkiewicz continued upon her success with a gold place finish in sabre, ousting North Carolina’s Sophia Kovacs. Skarbonkiewicz was down 13-8 in the final before rallying her way to a comeback victory. In total, 178 competitors competed in the sabre event. Skarbonkiewicz is no stranger to the national stage. The freshman from Portland, Oregon, represented the United States of America at
WBB
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12
six losses by 5 points or fewer. Winning a few of those could make their 3-11 ACC record look a lot better. But as things stand, they sit in 15th place and would be the last team in the ACC
the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. Before that accomplishment, Skarbonkiewicz won double gold at the 2023 Pan American Games and won gold at two Cadet World Championships.
In men’s foil, junior Chase Emmer was down early in the gold medal match to reigning NCAA National Champion, Pennsylvania’s Bryce Louie. Despite tightening the gap to 14-13, Louie produced one final touch to win the match 15-13.
Emmer’s silver medal was the top male Irish performance of the day. Notre Dame’s roster starred six more competitors in the foil event: Mason Stanley (24), Jack Oursler (35), Ziyuan Chen (44), Dom Joseph (45), Liam Bas (59) and Kevin Bae (113).
Meanwhile, in women’s foil, Notre Dame put on a stellar performance, placing themselves firmly as the top overall collegiate
Tournament, which now relegates the bottom three teams in light of the conference’s expansion. Their four remaining ACC contests will be pivotal as they try to hold off Pittsburgh and SMU.
The Cavinder twins and senior guard Jasmyne Roberts are the only returnees from the 2023
program in attendance. Victoria Pevzner, off the back of an 8-2 record at the Beguinet Classic, finished in fifth place. Ryanne Leslie (9), JoJo Conway (12) and Meredith Palmer (T25) weren’t far behind. As a freshman, Pevzner has shown to be Notre Dame’s premier foil specialist and has only gotten better as the season has progressed. Similarly, sophomore Ryanne Leslie — who finished fifth at the ACC Championships in 2024 has continued upon her firstyear success this season.
Freshman Emma Griffin, who finished 5-1 at the Beguinet Classic and totaled 10 wins at Northwestern Duals the week prior, did not participate in the competition.
The Irish men’s sabre roster consisted of Matthew Chan, Rodrigo Fernandez and Ian Greenbaum. The three athletes took on the competition Tuesday morning.
Elite Eight team. Haley Cavinder picked up right where she left off, leading the team in scoring with 18.8 points per game on an efficient 47.2% from the field, the best of her five-year collegiate career. Transfer forwards Cameron Williams and Natalija Marshall round out the starting lineup along with freshman guards Ahnay Adams and
Although none placed, it was an encouraging showing from the young crop of fencers.
In women’s epee, Kyle Fallon and Felicity Sebastian placed 37th and 51st respectively. Both fell short in the round of 64 with Fallon losing to Columbia’s Sophia Jakel and Sebastian to Desai Meera, one of the top high school epee recruits in the country. The tournament proved to be a strong test for both fencers as they prepare for the ACC Championships this upcoming month.
To round off the tournament, the men’s epee team saw some Irish-on-Irish action. In the round of 32, juniors Nicholas Candela and Noah Silvers squared off against one another. Candela came out victorious. Candela would work his way through to the semi-finals, taking down Omari Smoak and Skyler Liverant on the way. The junior gracefully bowed
Leah Harmon, members of the 18th-best freshman class in the country, adding minutes off the bench. Williams, a four-year player at Michigan, has added 11.7 points along with a team-high 7.0 rebounds per game. While the new-look squad has shown flashes this season in year one under Cullop, it will need a near-perfect
out to reigning NCAA Individual National Champion, Princeton’s Tristan Szapary, by a score of 158. On the other side of the bracket, freshman Kent Iyoki fell short to fencing veteran Oleg Knysh in the round of 32.
Looking ahead
From here on out, it’s nothing but postseason play for Notre Dame. The Irish will head to the ACC Championships in Chapel Hill from Feb. 22-23 before the NCAA Midwest Regional in Granville, Ohio, on March 8. Following regionals, Notre Dame will attempt to continue upon its historic success where head coach Gia Kvaratskhelia and his program look to obtain their fourth Co-Ed Championship in five seasons and ninth overall.
Contact Chris Dailey at cdailey2@nd.edu
performance to slow down this Irish team the way they are playing right now.
Tip-off for the ACC clash is set for 7 p.m. Thursday in the Watsco Center. ACC Network will broadcast the game.
Contact Noah Cahill at ncahill2@nd.edu
ND WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Irish back up No. 1 ranking, take down Duke
By BEN HICKS Sports Writer
Just six hours after being named the nation’s No. 1 team for the first time since Jan. 2019, Niele Ivey’s Notre Dame women’s basketball team was back in Purcell Pavilion to put that mark to the test.
“This was a big moment for us with a lot of external pressure coming into the game. Our team was focused and I am so grateful for the energy that the South Bend community pours into us,” Ivey said.
With just five more games standing between the Irish and a perfect ACC regular season, something that hasn’t been done since the 2015-16 campaign, Notre Dame would first have to get by No. 11 Duke.
Led by former Tennessee standout and accomplished ESPN analyst Kara Lawson, the two-time national runner-up Blue Devils have enjoyed resurgent success following last year’s surprise trip to the Sweet Sixteen. Duke, whose leading scorer is freshman forward Toby Fournier, entered the matchup at 20-5 overall and 11-2 in conference play, good for third in the league.
One of the most dynamic backcourts the game has ever seen has engineered a banner Year 5 for Ivey’s program in South Bend. The guard trio of graduate Olivia Miles, senior Sonia Citron and sophomore Hannah Hidalgo combine to average a staggering 55 points, 17 rebounds and 14 assists per game. While Miles and Citron are expected to be top-three selections in April’s
ND WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
upcoming WNBA Draft, Hidalgo has emerged as one of the frontrunners for the Wooden National Player of the Year Award. The Irish have also benefited from their frontcourt, with Pitt transfer forward Liatu King averaging a double-double with 12 PPG and 10.4 RPG.
The sellout crowd of 9,149 inside Purcell Pavilion was ignited from the jump as Notre Dame celebrated National Women and Girls in Sports Day, but it was the visiting Blue Devils who came out with more energy, opening up a 19-16 lead after quarter one.
Junior guard Taina Mair, who averages just 7.1 PPG on the season, converted on all four of her looks in the opening frame to lead the Blue Devils. Mair, a Boston native who transferred from Boston College following her freshman year, is Duke’s primary playmaker averaging over 4 assists an outing.
Speaking with the media postgame, Hidalgo touched on the importance of regular-season challenges. “Playing tough teams like Duke at this point in the season is big for us so that we aren’t getting hit in the mouth in close games during the ACC Tournament and NCAA Tournament,” she said.
Neither side could connect on a field goal for the first four minutes of the second quarter, but three Irish free throws leveled the scoring before a Citron triple gave Notre Dame its first lead in over 10 minutes.
Despite ending on a nearly three-minute scoring drought, the Blue Devils high-pressure full-court defense kept it close
by scoring 9 points off 10 Notre Dame turnovers. Duke, who leads the ACC forcing nearly 22 turnovers a game, led the Irish for 14 minutes of the first half but entered the intermission trailing 29-27. Both Fournier and Miles were held to just 3 points each, while Mair led Duke with 11 and Hidalgo and graduate forward Maddy Westbeld led Notre Dame with 8 apiece at the break.
Citron came out of the locker room on fire, as she scored the first 6 points of the third quarter to open up an 8-point Irish advantage, which forced a Duke timeout. The stoppage wouldn’t halt the bleeding though, as 4 consecutive Duke turnovers all resulted in Irish baskets, ballooning the lead to 46-28. Hidalgo connected on a trey and a transition layup during the 11-0 surge, and also found Miles on two nolook dimes to electrify the Irish faithful.
In the postgame press conference, Lawson addressed Notre Dame’s depth and star power during the big run. “That run coming out of halftime overwhelmed us. Notre Dame was really purposeful with their execution, and it becomes hard to play from behind against such a talented team,” she said.. “Some of our turnovers fueled their transition game, and they are really hard to stop when they get out and run. They have so many capable weapons, and it felt like we were playing uphill against them from there.”
Citron agreed, adding, “Our defense fueled our offense, and we have so much speed with Olivia and Hannah to get us running
during that third quarter.”
All told, Notre Dame shot 9-20 in the period, while holding Duke to just 2-11 en route to a 50-35 advantage. The Notre Dame defense, which leads the ACC by averaging over 11.6 steals per game, forced 6 turnovers in the frame and outrebounded the Blue Devils 15-6.
In the end, the Irish would prevail 64-49, holding their opponent under 60 points for the fourth straight game. Despite dropping three of the last four against Duke, the Notre Dame victory moved the Irish to 19-4 in the all-time series.
Hidalgo led the Irish in scoring for the 19th time this year, scoring 19 points despite not having her most efficient night. Citron added 15, and Westbeld tallied 11 despite missing some time in the first half with a bloody nose. Mair had her second-best scoring output this season, spearheading the struggling Duke attack with 15.
Ivey was impressed with her backcourt’s play on both sides of the court, attesting, “The energy of our guard play was incredible today.”
The Irish showed once again why they are the ACC’s premier rebounding team, dominating the glass 41-28, including 15 offensive boards. Lawson noted the difficulty in getting back in the game with Notre Dame’s rebounding resilience. “We didn’t box out and that hurt as we were trying to mount a comeback. Notre Dame pursued the ball well, and those offensive rebounds hurt.”
Ivey concluded by complimenting her team’s focus. “I
addressed it on Saturday, but nothing changes with our goal. We knew the ranking was a possibility but we didn’t want to focus on it, so I’m proud of how our group navigated all the attention,” she said.
“You can embrace the special moment with the crowd because we haven’t experienced that in my tenure, but then you have to lock in and play the game. I’ve learned that adversity and challenges are going to present themselves, so you can’t think about the accolades, or the streak, you just have to get up every day and find a way to get better,” Ivey concluded.
After a two-game road set that began in Winston-Salem against Wake Forest, the Blue Devils will now return home to Durham to play three consecutive home games inside the world-famous Cameron Indoor Stadium. Sitting at 23-2 after reeling off 18 consecutive wins, the Irish head out on their last road trip of the regular season to close out the week. The first stop of the two-game set is Thursday evening in Coral Gables, Florida, as Notre Dame takes on Miami. Sunday afternoon brings the game of the week in women’s college basketball, as the Irish face the No. 13 NC State Wolfpack in a noon matinee showdown between the ACC’s top two teams, highlighted by ESPN’s College Gameday. Thursday’s contest with the Hurricanes tips off at 7:00 p.m., with streaming available on ACCNX.
Contact Ben Hicks at bhicks2@nd.edu
Closing in on ACC title, Irish travel to Miami
By NOAH CAHILL Associate Sports Editor
Notre Dame women’s basketball proved its new No. 1 ranking with a 64-49 victory over No. 11 Duke and extended its lead atop the ACC, inching one step closer to a regular-season title. In front of an electric home crowd in Purcell Pavilion Monday night, the Irish had their hands full after the first half, taking only a narrow 2-point lead into halftime in a cagy defensive battle. They would assert their dominance coming out of the break, however, in a 21-8 third quarter powered by a 17-1 run that had the lead as high as 18. Taking a 50-35 advantage into the fourth quarter, they cruised to another
comfortable victory to improve to 23-2 on the year, remaining undefeated at 14-0 in ACC play. Now heading to Florida to face Miami, the Irish have four more regular-season games before they set their sights on a bigger prize in the postseason. While the Hurricanes shouldn’t pose a significant threat to Notre Dame on paper, head coach Niele Ivey’s group will be wary not to look ahead to Sunday’s matchup against No. 13 N.C. State, the only team that holds on to hope of stealing their regular-season title. Their sloppiness with turnovers continues to be an issue to monitor as well, giving it away 18 times against the Blue Devils and 15.4 times per game on the season. Self-inflicted errors seem to be
the only thing capable of stopping the Irish right now, but if they stay out of their own way, they should expect another routine win on Thursday.
Miami in year one of the Cullop era
Since their unlikely 2023 Elite Eight run, the Miami Hurricanes have struggled to reach similar heights in recent seasons. They took a step back in 2023-24, due largely to the Cavinder twins taking a year off from basketball. After transferring from Fresno State, both sisters contributed in their first year with the team. Hanna played a role off the bench in 2023, but her sister Haley was the star, leading the team in scoring with 12.2 points per
game. Without the Cavinders, Miami went 19-12 and 8-10 in the ACC, missing out on the NCAA Tournament.
Legendary head coach Katie Meier retired at the conclusion of the season after 19 years with the program. Former Toledo head coach Tricia Cullop took the reins entering the 2024-25 season, boasting a career record of 476-279 with 10 20-win seasons across her tremendous 25-year Division I coaching career. Inheriting a team full of new faces, however, year one of the Cullop era has come with some growing pains for the Hurricanes. After opening up the season 11-1, they struggled out of the gates in ACC play, losing their first seven conference games. After a pair of
wins against Virginia and SMU finally got them off the mark, they stared down a gauntlet of five straight top-25 matchups, which included No. 20 Georgia Tech, No. 11 Duke, No. 13 NC State and then-ranked No. 23 Florida State. They round out that stretch with their toughest test of the season, the nation’s new No. 1 in Notre Dame. Despite losing their four previous games, the Hurricanes showed life, losing a 76-74 heartbreaker on the road against the Wolfpack before falling a point short in an 83-82 thriller against the Seminoles. Late-game scenarios have plagued Miami this season, as the Hurricanes have suffered