Maryvale

Catherine Kauffmann, English Faculty, has been named the Archdiocese of Baltimore Independent School Teacher of the Year for the 2025-2026 school year!

On Thursday, May 7, 2026, representatives from the Archdiocese of Baltimore surpised Ms. Kauffmann to share the exciting news while she was teaching her English 10 Honors class.

“There are well over 2,800 teachers in the whole Archdiocese of Baltimore so to be selected as the best, the top is unbelievable,” said Gregory A. Farno, the Chancellor of Education for the Archdiocese of Baltimore. He added, “From Archbishop Lori on down, thank you for what you do every day. You are a great reflection of catholic education and of Maryvale. We’re so happy and so proud to be with you!”

Karen Murphy, Associate Superintendent for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, explained how Ms. Kauffmann was selected. She shared that one teacher from each school is nominated by their academic administration, which is blind reviewed by the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The finalists undergo classroom observations before the winner is chosen. 

“If you remember last year, your art teacher won,” Karen Murphy shared, referring to Marlena Murtagh, Maryvale’s Visual Arts Teacher and Digital Media Specialist who was named AOB Teacher of the Year for the 2024-2025 school year. She added, “So, this must be a pretty cool school!” 

Maryvale is the first school to have back-to-back Teacher of the Year winners! 

The Maryvale Varsity Lacrosse team won the IAAM A Conference Championship on Friday, May 8 after an undefeated season. The final score at USA Lacrosse was 10-5 against McDonogh. 

IAAM News Article: 
By Katherine Dunn

Maryvale lacrosse coach Brian Reese could never have chosen an MVP after the Lions’ second straight IAAM A Conference championship. Too many players stood out in a fantastic team-driven 10-5 victory over McDonogh that gave the Lions their second straight title Friday night at USA Lacrosse headquarters in Sparks.

“That’s the strength of our team, our depth. We have exceptional players from the top down and I think sometimes our most competitive times are in practice. We push each other in practice and iron sharpens iron,” said Reese, who will be stepping down as his daughter and best player Cayden Reese graduates and takes her game to Maryland to play for her mother, Cathy Reese.

The Lions (18-0) didn’t take long to establish their dominance Friday against a McDonogh team that had given them their toughest battle of the regular season, an 11-9 decision on March 25.

Just over a minute into Friday’s game, Maryvale goalie Brynn Howes set the tone with a save. A minute and a half later, senior Finola McCormick wove through the middle to score. Maddie Moran and Reese Pasko made it 3-0 with 2:31 left in the quarter. The Lions built a 5-1 halftime lead and second-seeded McDonogh (13-4) never got closer than within four.

McCormick, who picked up the slack when the Eagles face guarded Lions’ leading scorers Cayden Reese and Maddie Moran, said her team felt the weight of being unbeaten.

“Definitely a lot of pressure coming into this, being the No. 1 team in the country, undefeated this season,” she said, “so obviously we wanted to finish out the season strong and how we’ve been playing all season. I really think it was about remaining humble through it all and getting done what we needed to get done. It wasn’t about winning by 10, winning by 20, it was about just winning by one, being there for each other no matter what.” 

In addition to McCormick’s goals, Carly Aldridge scored two and Moran had a goal and an assist. Cayden Reese, Emma Mohn and Pasko added single goals. Carly Koepsell and Emma Buttner each had an assist. 

Cayden Reese, Aldridge and Reese Hatton dominated the draw as the Lions won 12 of 16. Clara McCormick, on the circle, won six.

Defensively, the Lions unit of Chloe Thomas, Kendall Carfine, Heidi Dwan, Madeline Brannan and Katelyn Schoenwetter held the Eagles to their lowest offensive output of the season. Howes finished with seven saves — four in the first quarter.

“I’m ecstatic,” Thomas said of the defensive effort. “I think it was really good. It was the best all season from us. It’s just the best getting a two-peat and, obviously, getting to play with some of my favorite people means the most to me.”

The Lions took their biggest lead early in the third quarter when Finola McCormick made it 7-1. The Eagles then rallied with goals from Reed Pinkin and Parker Kitchel. 

McDonogh’s defensive unit of Kit Laake, Ava Sesay, Mia Kynsh and Peyton Cowley shut out the Lions for the final 8:18 of the quarter. The Eagles just didn’t take advantage of a couple of Maryvale turnovers and few errant shots during that stretch. 

Goalie Reagan O’Donovan, who had six saves, stopped Cayden Reese’s free-position shot to end the quarter, but the Eagles didn’t carry over the momentum. Finola McCormick scored twice in the first 2:02 of the quarter to boost Maryvale’s lead to 9-3.

McDonogh coach Megan Nicotra praised her defense, but said the Eagles needed to generate more than 16 shots to top the Lions. 

Still Nicotra was pleased with her team’s growth through the season. Maryvale was the only team to score in double figures on them.

“Early in the season, I think people probably doubted us,” she said. “We had a few early season losses and I think the kids took that and used that as fire to propel us here. It’s really hard to make it to this day in this conference and I’m just really proud of the effort they put on the field.”

The Eagles will graduate 11 seniors and the Lions, 10, including two players whose careers were shortened by knee injuries. Both teams had to overcome the loss of a high-scoring senior who would have been on the field Friday night. 

Maryvale midfielder Lainey Minderlein suffered an ACL tear in the McDonogh game. Last season, she scored five goals in the championship, including the last two in a 7-5 win over Archbishop Spalding for their first title since 2002. The Eagles lost attacker Ava Fossati, their leading scorer to an ACL tear in the Severn game. While Minderlein has had surgery, Fossati will soon.

The Outdoor Track and Field team won the IAAM A Conference Championship after for the 2026 season after winning the Indoor Track and Field Championship for the 2025-2026 season. 

IAAM News Article: 
By Gene Williams

Maryvale roared to the IAAM A Conference Track and Field Championships by accruing 226 points over the two days of competition. That tally gave the Lions the highest team score in memory.

The win was only the second A Conference title for Maryvale, the last was in 2019.

This year’s runner up and 16-time team champ, McDonogh had a four-year streak ended with their final score of 163 points.

Winning six events and scoring in all 18 events was a formula Maryvale used to dominate the seven team field. 

Lion athletes took 1, 2, 3 sweeps in three events collect to the maximum number of available points , 24 in each, in the 100 meter hurdles, 300 meter hurdles and the discus throw.

Senior London Simons won the 100 hurdles in 15.90 seconds and was followed by teammates Lia Stewart and Kiisha Wiliams.  Simons doubled up in the 300 meter barrier dash in 46.39. In second was supported by Layla Omopariola and Stewart.

Omopariola also contributed a big Day 1 scoring boost with discus throw of 111-feet, 6-inches win.  Taking second and third respectively were Maleah Johnson and Makay Ogbe.

A pair of sprint relay wins claimed 10 points each for Maryvale. Mayah Escoe, Tori Andrews, Cara Vickery and Lucy Brannan passed the baton successfully in both the 4×100, won in 49.13, and the 4×200, 1:46.47.

High jump gold went to Shiloh Green with a leap of 5-feet, 2-inches.  She jumped from fourth place to first as the only competitor to clear the winning height.

McDonogh’s five event wins kept the Eagles in the conversation after the triple jump went to Laila Harris, 36-00.75, and the pole vault to Julianne Dawn, 11-6, on day 1. Harris then added the long jump crown on day 2 by clearing 16-07.

Shot putter Destiny Nwanna tossed the 4-kilogram iron ball 37-03.5 for a three and half-foot cushion over second place.

Grace Richardson’s first place in the 400 at 57.87 led the Eagles’ highest scoring individual even, 16 points.  Placing third was Chrisoula Vourlos and in sixth place was Martha Marshall.

Mount de Sales’ third place 91 points came with one event win and heavy placement in the longer runs. The Sailors open day1 competition by winning the 4×800 relay in 9:36.92.  The foursome of Siena Bammel, Mary Bacinski, Audrey Siegfried, and Eva Bacinski had to chase a front loaded McDonogh team for two legs before pulling ahead for the gold.

The Bacinski sisters place took second and third in 3200 with teammate Anna Ring in fifth for 18 points.  The 1600 saw Bacinski’s in second and fourth, along with third place Fiona Smith for 19 points.

Archbishop Spalding, 85 points for fourth, used the speed of Ari Easley who took the 100 meters, 12.21, and 200 meters, 24.70. Audrey Kregelka covered 800 meters in 2:18.65, with teammate Zoey Fellner in third.

Kregelka and Zellner also ran legs on the Cavs’ wining 4×400 relay, in 4:08.57, along with Evelynn Hader, Caden Prato.

Notre Dame Prep fifth place total of 69 points were driven by the efforts of Lucy Myers’ who won the 3200 in 11:18.99, the 1600, in 5:13.19, placed second at 800 meters, 2:19.99, and anchored the Blazer’s 4×800 to third place, 9:50.65.