This was a season about heart, effort and building. Cathedral High School boys swimming not only featured a new head coach in 2025-2026, it was a growing program that got the most from its ability – and a program that turned in multiple memorable performances. “I say they’re small but mighty,” said Mandy Long, who was in her first season as head coach in ’25-’26 after spending two seasons as an assistant with the program. Senior Tyler Neucks finished in the Top 10 in two events at the Section 14 meet at Lawrence Central, with the Irish finishing eighth in the meet at a team. “He did great,” Long said. “He got his best time. I was like, ‘I can't ask for any more from him than he gave me. He literally gave it all that he could.’ ” The Irish boys in Long’s first season as head coach finished eighth in the Section 14 meet at Lawrence Central with 128 points. Franklin Central won the meet with 503 points. “They did a great job,” Long said. “There were only 11 of them total and that’s pretty tough. It was a wide range of abilities, too. We had everything from some boys where we were kind of teaching them how to dive when they came in to some boys that had been doing it for many years. “We had some who were club swimmers and were helping us with some of the newer swimmers. We didn't have a wide, wide range of people to just kind of like plug in and plug out, but it worked well. I could not be more proud of them. “They worked very, very hard and they, they showed really, really well. “ Neucks finished second in the 50-yard freestyle at the sectional meet, also finishing fourth in the 100-yard butterfly at sectional. He narrowly missed qualifying for the state meet with his 21.99 in the 50 free and swam the 100-yard fly in 55.60. “It was very bittersweet,” Long said of Neucks, whose 21.99 was the fastest preliminary 50 free in the meet. “He's a senior and he literally got touched out by .03. That’s literally a fingernail. It’s the 50 and it’s just tough.” Also key for the Irish: Senior Wyatt Field, who finished fifth in the 200-yard freestyle in 1:48.34 and fifth in the 500 free in 5:01.91 at the sectional meet. “It’s tough for me to lose both of them,” Long said of Neucks and Field, the program’s two seniors in 2025-2026. “They gave everything they had. They will be missed by everyone. They will be missed on all levels – not only swimming, but also just having their leadership, their expertise and helping make swimming more popular. They will be missed greatly.” The 2026 Irish boys also were led by junior Luke Anton, who finished 15th in the 500 free at sectional in 5:38.53). The Irish’s 200-yard medley relay – freshman Grant Reid, Anton, sophomore Roman Ogle and freshman Thomas Kim – finished 10th in 2:06.43 at sectional. The 200 freestyle relay team – Field, Reid, freshman Will McClure and Neucks – finished sixth in 1:37.68. The 400 freestyle relay – Neucks, Anton, McClure and Field – finished sixth in 3:37.54. “It is hard going in and swimming against those big public schools that have these numbers and they've got just so many to pick from,” Long said. “That can be very intimidating to kind of come into, but our boys handle it very, very well. “It ebbs and flows. Sometimes there are these big football players that come and swim and they're amazing swimmers, then other times it's just like not on anyone's radar. I'm hoping we'll kind of pick up. I would love for us to pick up next year and definitely in the near future where we can kind of get some young guys in.” Also contributing for the Irish in 2025-2026: Sophomore Andres Martinez-Lezama and junior Luke Bruno and freshman Owen Shirey. All Cathedral swimmers swam their best time at the sectional meet. “I always tell them, ‘It's a mindset,’’’ Long said. “We worked really hard this year on positive thinking and your mindset. That's more than half the battle, going in and having that mindset. It might not be this big, huge guy, but can he go out there and win the 200 or the 500? Yeah, he can. “We worked real hard on that, especially with the smaller numbers. Particularly for the boys, to kind of come in and be like, ‘You're the only one that's telling you that you can't do this, so don't tell yourself that. You can do this and you've done it before.’ They all mesh really well.”