The Crusader - Issue 5 - February 2014 - Catwalk for Cancer cover

Page design by Arts & Entertainment Editor Caroline Young

Check us out online at www.cghsnc.org/newspaper and follow us on Twitter @newspapercghsnc

THE RUSADERCardinal Gibbons High School

1401 Edwards Mill Rd Raleigh, N.C. 27607

Catwalk for Cancer

Volume 13 - Issue 5February 14, 2014

Student fashion show raises $2,037 for breast cancer research

All photos by Nicole Howren/Gibbons Media, except photo of Jake Zawada, taken by Ashley Herbert/Landmark Yearbook

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The Crusader 2 February 14, 2014

Page design by News Editor Anthony Palumbo

news

On Thursday, January 16, Gibbons hosted its 19th annual Blood Drive. The Blood Drive began when the Fran-ciscan Brothers of Brooklyn took over the administration at Gibbons.

This year 169 students successfully donated blood to the American Red Cross, ultimately saving 152 lives.

Each year the student council works with the American Red Cross to make the event possible. They team up trying to achieve three goals:

First, Give first time blood donors a good first experience, so that they be-come donors for life.

Second, achieve the goal for spe-cific number of units of blood.

Gibbons gives back through blood driveStudents and faculty help make 19th annual event a success

Anthony PalumboNews Editor

Third, it allows for students, espe-cially student junior student council members to step up and show some leadership.

Although numbers this year have gone down, the Blood Drive has always been something students strive to par-ticipate in. The blood drive gives stu-dents the opportunity to take a break from their busy daily schedules to help out people in need

Assistant Principal of Student Life Mike Rogosich, is the driving force be-hind this rewarding event. Rogosich helps guide the junior student council members, while also helping them stay organized while trying to put the event together.

This year Rogosich was unable to attend the blood drive because he

Volunteers from the Red Cross arrived at 4:15 a.m. to set up for the Blood Drive. 169 students donated blood, potentially saving 152 lives. Junior student council members showed great leadership as they recruited fellow juniors and some seniors to help them run the blood drive. Other than the volunteers taking blood, the blood drive was com-pletely student run.

Photo from left to right: Junior Michelle Saleh and seniors Alex Ingerson and Brandon Bales check in senior Connor Battershall (far right) as he arrived to give blood at the blood drive. The blood drive was led by the junior student council members.

All photos by Maryanne Fisher/Landmark Yearbook

was attending a funeral, but he had no doubt that his students were going to be able to pull it off.

“My favorite part was knowing that even in my absence, there were enough caring kids, and enough leaders to do all this without me,” said Rogosich.

Stepping up is nothing new for Gibbons students. The opportunity to step up is something that Gibbons look forward to, being able to step up is something that all Gibbons students look forward to.

“While other schools just allow student leaders, Gibbons gives stu-dents opportunities and specific build-ing blocks they need to step up and step out of their comfort zones.

Gibbons has truly brought out the

leader in me and I would not be who I am today without the Gibbons commu-nity encouraging me to step up,” said junior class Vice President Kathryn Wright.

While some students did not meet the weight requirement of 110 pounds for participants of 18 years or under, those who are ineligible to give blood still feel like they are making a differ-ence.

“It feels great to be able to help with the blood drive, even though I can’t give blood. It feels good knowing I am helping out in some way,” said ju-nior Sarah Roepke.

Photo from @principalcghsnc

Photo from left to right: Junior Morgan Sinclair and seniors Conor Smith, Zach Domb-kowski and John Cunningham sit at the check out table at the blood drive. Students volunteered to give up their time during the day to help out others and make sure they had a good experience giving blood.

Juniors Maggie Dever and Michelle Saleh strike a pose at the entrance at the blood drive. The two girls greeted donors as they arrived in the gym. Student Council re-cruited fellow juniors to help them run the event. Students stepped up to the plate to save 152 lives, which was equal to 169 students donating blood.

Junior Austin Fissinger leaves the blood drive with a big smile. Students were given the opportunity to donate blood to the American Red Cross.

The Crusader 3February 14, 2014

Page design by Stephanie Todd News Editor

News

Gibbons hosts its first science festivalStudents demonstrate science through labs and events

By Stephanie ToddNews Editor

There are many outlets for stu-dents at Gibbons to invest their tal-ents into: scholastic art competitions,

sporting events, and now there’s a science festival.

The first Gibbons Sci-ence Festival was on Monday, January 13 but the concept for the festival was born last sum-mer when earth science teacher Diane Ripol-

lone heard about it while working

with other teachers at a NASA-spon-sored space camp.

“I tried to implement it here and [Academic Dean and science depart-

ment chair] Sr. Janet [Schemmel, SND] and others came on board right away and it expanded,” said Ripollone.

Ripollone notes the festival wouldn’t have happened without the help of everybody in the science de-partment who invested their time and energy.

The science department is made up of 12 members, all of whom not only participated with their classes but also embraced the idea with enthusiasm and willingness to collaborate.

“It was a lot of work. A lot of people helped and a couple people stepped up to the plate which made it easier,” said Ripollone.

The festival was a collaboration of the many science classes at Gibbons. Physics, chemistry, and earth science were covered in labs that were hands-on and engaging. Student volunteers worked on labs and demonstrated sci-entific prinicples for the middle school students and parents who attended.

“It was cool to see all of the science departments come together for a night and show off their work,” says junior Melissa McBride, who is currently in Physics class.

McBride, like many of the student volunteers, assisted by helping middle school students find their way to the exhibitions of demonstrated labs as well as helping students participate in the labs.

“The labs that night were so inter-active and very kid-friendly, even many of the parents wanted to have a slice of the fun,” said junior Tyler Pham, cur-rently enrolled in AP Chemistry.

There was also a speaker in the mainstage theater, Dr. Mary Jane Epps. Epps works at the Dunn Lab at N.C. State University who spoke on the topics of fungi and “belly button diver-sity”.

“It was really interesting to see both how excited she was to teach us about fungi and also see and learn all

of the different types of fungi,” said ju-nior Molly Lynch.

The theater was filled with Gib-bons students as well as visitors.

“The majority of volunteers were juniors and seniors, and my favorite part was probably hanging out with them,” said Lynch.

Despite the relatively few numbers of visitors, Ripollone feels the night was worthwhile.

“It was a success in the sense that students had a ton of fun. There may not have been a lot of outside people, but that will come,” said Ripollone.

With the success of this festival, hopes have been raised for more Gib-bons science festivals in the years to come.

“There will definitely be future ones. It might be next year or it might not [but] there will definitely be more. We hope to keep expanding and get a little better and more attendance,” said Ripollone.

Photo by Lorenzo Macaisa/Gibbons Media

Computer science teacher David Bierlein prepares to show visitors the stars during the first Gibbons Science Festival on January 13, 2014.

(Above) Seniors Alexa Pursely, Nicole Alistair, and Bianca Gartner play with beetles. Beetle races were but one of the many events and labs during the Science Festival.

A middle school visitor (left) stops by the welcome table in the front lobby during the Science Festival. Student volunteers manned this station as well as operated much of the event.

Junior Ethan Lund does an experiment titled “Old Foamy” where soap was expanded like a geyser.

Junior Catherine Wagner participates in her class lab by measuring fluids along with the rest of her lab group.

(Left) The AP Chemistry class participated in many labs such as extracting the DNA of a strawberry.

Science teacher Lauren Gentile gets ready to demonstrate Broom Ball. Broom Ball is a game that the Physics class plays to learn the full extent of forces studied in class.

Sr. Janet Schemmel, SND the academic dean and head of science department freezes a rose. Sr. Janet was of those who responded enthusiastically to the idea of a science festival.

(Left to right) Juniors Maggie Dever, Catherine Wagner, Ethan Lund, and Katherine Combs participate in a chemical bioluminescence lab. “Basically we were recreating what happens inside of a glow stick or a lightning bug. Mixing chemicals together that give off a glowing light to indicate a chemical reaction took place,” said Dever.

Photo by Maryanne Fisher/Gibbons Media Photo by Lorenzo Macaisa/Gibbons Media Photo by Kathleen Larson/Gibbons Media


Photo by Kathleen Larson/Gibbons MediaPhoto by Lorenzo Macaisa/Gibbons Media Photo by Lorenzo Macaisa/Gibbons Media

Science teacher Diane Ripollone

Photo by Maryanne Fisher/Gibbons Media

The Crusader 4 February 14, 2014Technology

Erik BorchersNews Editor

Gibbons Robotics hosts state qualifier

Junior Sean Greene works on one of the two robots in preparation of lifting a flag dur-ing the competititon.

Photo by Lorenzo Macaisa/The Crusader

Robotics club competes with best robotics teams in the state

Ben Gravel controls Gibbon’s robot during a preliminary round at the state qualifier. Photo by Ryan Ruff/Gibbons Media

The Learning Commons were packed dur-ing the entire event, with robotics teams down on the floor and viewers above.

Photo by Ryan Ruff/Gibbons Media

People could watch the robotics tournament live stream in the theatre. The Learn-ing commons could only fit so many people.


A pull-up was the focus of the endgame. Most teams would stop placing blocks in the containter and attempt a pull-up.

One of the two robots the Purple Gears are planning to use on February 16th at the next tournament is being modified to place blocks more accurately.

Photo by Diego Pineda/Gibbons Media

Page design by News Editor by Erik Borchers


The Gibbons robotics club hosted the qualifying robotics First Technology Challenge Block Party on January 25 in the Learning Commons.

“We volunteered for the quali-fier really early to show off the great programs at Gibbons,” said co-coach Maryellen Toebes.

“North Carolina is split into three regions; we’ll be hosting one-half of the teams,” said Toebes. Toebes has been the co-coach of Gibbons robotics since the founding of the club in 2009.

The Gibbons robotics team used the name “Purple Gears” for the tournament. 24 other teams showed up to the tournament.

“When my daughter was here Gib-bons didn’t have anything like this. She asked her parents, me and my hus-band, Mr. Toebes, to start the club. She graduated a while ago, but we liked it so much,” said Toebes.

Toebes has a degree in electri-cal engineering and computer science from NC State.

“I mostly work with the program-ming,” said Toebes.

Sean McDonald is the lead pro-grammer for the team this year.

The team prepared since Septem-ber for the qualifier. The team meets on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Satur-days for three hours.

“I think we’re going to do pretty well. More work goes into this than the general public thinks. People are here (at Gibbons) two to three hours a day, even when we’re off,” said team captain senior Aaron Ruff.

“I’ve spent hours at home working on designs,” said Ruff.

The team always builds two iden-tical robots for both competition and testing purposes.

The First Tech Challenge Block

Party challenge is played on a 12’x12’ square field with a foam surface. Matches involve four teams; two times are randomly put together during a match and have to work together. Each match involves plac-ing blocks in designated areas, robot pull-ups, and flag raising. For the first 30 seconds of the match, the robots work autonomously with pre-programmed instructions. During the next two minutes robots are driver controlled. The final 30 seconds of a match allows robots to raise a flag for their team, which can be a major fac-tor in deciding who wins the match.

“We always build two identical, one for the competition and one for the programmers to use. Everyone is always trying to get a working robot, the programmers need a working ro-bot to code on,” said Toebes.

The robotics tournament has pre-viously had a ten member limit, but not anymore and the team is looking to expand.

The team already has new mem-bers. Freshman Reade McBride joined robotics this year.

“I joined robotics after shad-owing. One of my shadow’s friends (Sean Mcdonald) was in it. It looked really fun,” said McBride.

“A lot of people are being intro-duced to the FTC robotics commu-nity,” said Ruff.

Over 600 people watched the live broadcast of the event. Visi-tors watched on their phones due to the limited space available to view. The robotics tournament was also streamed in the old theatre for view-ing. The opening ceremony was held in the theatre as well. Jason Curtis and several officials from FTC spoke.

Gibbons is automatically includ-ed in the state tournament for host-ing the qualifier. Gibbons will attend

the state tournament at the NC A&T campus on February 16th alongside five other teams.

“It was positive (the qualifier) but some mistakes were made with our robot. Watching other robots gives us ideas to implement in our design to take on challenges that was hard for our robot,” said Ruff.

The ultimate goal is to go to the national tournament in St. Louis.

“We are going to learn from our performance, and implement challeng-es to move past our issues,” said Ruff.

The top four teams get to choose a partner team to go with them to the state tournament on the 16th.

“We turned down an alliance re-quest to allow a team that wasn’t going to now go,” said Ruff.

Eleven awards were handed out from FTC. Gibbons won the Paramet-ric Technology Corporation Design Award. The PTC Design Award is given out to the team that incorporates in-dustrial design elements into their ro-bot design.

The Crusader 5February 14, 2014 Technology

Apple iPads: 2013 Air and Mini reviewedErik BorchersNews Editor

New iPads stand out as major competitors in the tablet market

Page design by News Editor by Erik Borchers

The real sequelThe original iPad introduced the computer form.

The second generation iPad refined the initial prod-uct, becoming thinner, lighter, and of course faster. The third generation iPad focused solely on the display, bringing a pixel dense screen to the iPad - sacrifices were made to bring that technological advancement however. The third generation iPad lost all advancements the second generation iPad brought. Gone was the thin and light form factor, and speed stayed the same. The fourth generation iPad brought speed back, but the iPad still stayed thick and heavy. The 2013 iPad reveals it’s new feature in the name: iPad Air.

To summarize the iPad Air as a product is simple. It is the sequel to the iPad 2. Thinner, lighter, fast-er. The iPad Air does not make sacrifices like past models have; and the same can be said for the iPad Mini with Retina display. Advertised as an equal, just a physically smaller version of the full size iPad is mostly true, but this will be discussed later.

The outsideThe iPad Air, and iPad Mini with Retina display

have a classy, modernized design. The iPad line of tablets is not old; the design introduced back in 2010 still has elements contained in 2013’s model. All the buttons are in the same place, from the power to home button the organization hasn’t changed. How-ever the actual appearance has advanced towards a more modern approach.

Not included in the makeover is the home but-

ton. The home button needs a change - if just for brand recognition. The new iPhones introduced a touch sensitive home button. The new iPad’s use the old home button design. The home button feels fine on my iPad Mini, and a borrowed iPad Air. The power button is loose on my model - though it is important to note that I reviewed a launch day iPad mini. An Air purchased on the same day doesn’t have the same problem. It’s nothing worth worrying over. The power and volume buttons switched to aluminum, with the volume button separated into two pieces.

The 2013 iPad volume buttons have been split in two, and are now made of aluminum to match the body design.

Bezels and sides are the easiest part of the 2013 iPads to notice. The 2013 iPads sport shrinked bezels - al-lowing the same screen space in an overall smaller package. I thought the smaller bezels would make the iPad harder to hold, but they don’t. iOS 7’s finger rejection feature does a profi-cient job recognizing if I intended to touch the screen or not. The edge of the bezels have a line of chrome over them, and curve down softly to the back of the device. The metallic back collects all the moisture from your hands, holding the iPad for extended time always results in a hard to hold, sweaty device. The aluminum back is also prone to scratches. Sand and other fine particles will abrade the back if you’re not careful. That’s not to say that the iPad is fragile. The con-struction of the iPad feels solid, even though the device is composed of delicate materials. The price you pay for the “Apple premium” shows in the construction. There is a difference in

Smaller bezels and a sharper, more vibrant screen make the screen the focus of the new iPads.

iPad photos from Apple.com

materials and construction from Google’s 7” $200 tablet and Apple’s 8” $400 tablet.

Pixel increaseThe first generation iPad Mini was introduced

as a last generation product with a smaller screen. “Mini” was taken quite literally by Apple. The iPad Mini was introduced as a shrinked iPad 2, in the age of the iPad 4. Slower and with a last generation screen the iPad Mini was hard to recommend. The new iPad Mini attempts to erase the poor image of the original iPad, and again like the iPad Air it does so with it’s name - iPad Mini with Retina Display. As a marketing term “Retina Display” does have signifi-cance. The iPad Mini now has a high quality, pixel dense screen. The iPad Mini with Retina display is supposed to be as good as the full size iPad dis-play, it ends up being close, but not the same qual-ity. Colors are slightly washed out on the iPad Mini with Retina display, however I didn’t notice until I used the iPad Air. Unless you’re interacting with an iPad Air daily you won’t notice. The new iPad Mini is worth purchasing just for the screen upgrade. Web-sites are much easier to read, and the 8” screen is just large enough to not feel cramped. On smaller screen tablets such as Google’s competing tablet, the Nexus 7, the 7” screen can feel cramped while web browsing. The iPad line in general has better web browsing in portrait due to the 4:3 aspect ra-

tio, but video suffers from letterbox-ing. If you are solely looking to watch video the Nexus 7 or 10 is the better purchase, otherwise the iPad line is recommended.

The software iOS 7 ships with the 2013 iPads.

Visually it is different than previ-ous versions of the OS, similar the physical design of the iPad it has ad-vanced towards a more modern de-sign. Smaller fonts and brighter colors stand out on the high quality displays. Translucency is major design com-ponent of iOS7; from the springboard to Safari part of the app will be trans-lucent. The effect is well done, and not overdone like the system anima-tions. The new animations introduced in iOS are overdone and distracting; thankfully there is a setting to change system animations to soft dissolves instead of windows sweeping in and out. Gone are the ugly designs of the calendar and Gamecenter apps. Green felt has been removed from Apple de-sign, white is the most common color in iOS 7. The interface has been re-fined since 2007 - it’s not drastically different in usability. If you handed someone an iPad running iOS 7 back in 2010 they would know how to use

it. Redone multi-tasking and fast ac-cess setting, called “Control Center”

are the best new features of iOS 7. The multi-tasking menu is the same in function, but it is more visu-ally appealing on the large iPad screen. Before iOS 7 the multi-tasking function looked out of place on such a large screen. Control Center is accessed from swiping up from the bottom of the iPad screen, no matter where you are in the OS. The amount of steps to change your brightness has been shortened from four steps to two.

Control Center is the most useful addition to iOS 7. Apple has made most aspects of simpler than before.

Screenshot by News Editor Erik Borchers

Photo from Apple.com

Final verdictThe iPad Air and iPad Mini with Retina display

are both excellent products. The big question is whether to buy one or not. If you are coming from an iPad 2 or original iPad Mini the upgrade is a no brainer. The best of third and fourth iPad models are present in the 2013 iPads. Some retailers, such as Target will buy back your iPad 2 for $200 as long as the screen isn’t cracked and it turns on. It’s worth looking around to sell your older iPad. Buying a new iPad Mini with Retina display for $200 is quite the deal considering the low priced competitors are priced the same. If you are looking to purchase a tablet give the new iPads a solid look. As an enter-tainment device the iPad is incredible. Watching live hockey games or movies on the road is a futuristic experience. I don’t recommend the iPad as a device for creation; the touch screen just doesn’t work as well as a mouse and keyboard. Depending on what you play to do it may work, look into it first.

When the iPad Mini was introduced it was a lesser iPad, “Mini” in all respects. It cost less than the full size iPad, and at $329 it was appealing as a lower cost iPad. The tradeoff was it was the same tablet from two years ago, just smaller. Now at $400 and with identical specs the iPad Mini with Retina display is just a smaller iPad Air. The choice is now between the same tablet in 8” and 9.7” form factors.

The Crusader 7February 14, 2014 Photo Gallery

TOP LEFT: Science teacher Lauren Gentile shows seniors Alexa Purs-ley (left) and Lauren Morris an experiment with their DNA at the Sci-ence Festival on January 13.

Photo by Sean Biette/Gibbons Media

Photo by Jessica Airey/Gibbons Media

Photo by Rachel Hebert/Gibbons Media


Photo by Diego Pineda/Gibbons Media

TOP RIGHT: The Gibbons varsity cheerleaders practice before heading to the National High School Cheerleading Championship, which were held in Orlando, Florida on February 8 and 9.

LOWER LEFT: The Cardinal Gibbons Pall Bearers Society serves at a funeral held at Duke Chapel at Duke University in Durham on January 9. The members of the Pall Bearers Society serve at funerals around the Triangle when help is requested by families of any faiths.

LOWER RIGHT: The band performs at the winter pep rally, held on Friday, January 31. Gibbons operated on a two-hour delay due to snow that day but still managed to celebrate all-school Mass and the pep rally to close a snow-shortened Catholic Schools Week.

Students visit with Allison Hepburn, ‘06, a Product Evangelist for Acrolinx while business and media teacher Darsey Williams looks on (right). Hepburn was one of 22 Gibbons alumni/ae that returned on Friday, February 7, for Alumni Career Day, held in the main lobby.

Page design by Arts and Entertainment Editor Caroline Young

Insta-Gibbons: Top shots of Gibbons in action

Photo selection by Lorenzo Macaisa/Gibbons Media

Photo by Katherine Nanney/Gibbons Media

Junior Michael Daw practices during percussion class. Students from all the Fine Arts depart-ment programs performed for the public during the Fine Arts Festival on Saturday, February 1.

The Crusader 8 MAESTRO

Page Design by Production Editor Cheyenne Wood

Catwalk forCancer Catwalk for Cancer, the annual student-run fashion show which raises money

for breast cancer research, took place Saturday, February 1 in the Gibbons main-stage theater.

The show raised $2037 in donations, all of which went to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Catwalk for Cancer began in 2007 when Bianca Owens ’07 approached Direc-tor of Outreach Agnes Penny with the idea of combining fashion with supporting breast cancer awareness.

Every year since, the show has been organized and led by a group of students with Penny’s support.

This year, seniors Rachel Hebert, Jennifer Rilley, Marcy Steigerwald, and Mi-chael Lim were the primary organizers and all were pleased with the results of the sold-event event.

“Our goal was to raise as much money for breast cancer research as we could, and I think we achieved that,” said Hebert.

“I wanted to help out with Catwalk because I am very passionate about mod-eling and fighting for a cure to breast cancer. Mrs. Penny encouraged all of us to make this show the best one yet. This year we had more support, student volun-teers, and models than any previous years,” said Steigerwald.

Photo by Nicole Howren/Gibbons Media

Photo by Ashley Herbert/Gibbons Yearbook

Photo by Ashley Herbert/Gibbons Yearbook Photo by Ashley Herbert/Gibbons Yearbook

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The female models were (left to right) sophomore Lauren Billy, junior Morgan Manning, senior Kitty Gibbons, senior Rachel Lanzone, junior Meredith Sitze, sophomore Emma Longley, senior Bianca Gartner, junior Kathryn Wright, senior Natasha Johnston, senior Lucy Barretto, senior Amy Robertson, freshman Reni Taiwo, senior Dianne Scardino, senior Lauren Morris, senior Maddie Smith, senior Rebecca Wiley, junior Samantha Geaslen, and junior Natalie Freeman. Organizer senior Jennifer Rilley is lower right.

Photo courtesy of Jennifer Robertson Photography and Dave Davies Photography

Photo courtesy of Jennifer Robertson Photography and Dave D

avies Photography

Students show off the latest in prom fashions, raising money and awareness in the process

By Cheyenne WoodProduction Editor

Photo by Nicole Howren/Gibbons Media Photo by Nicole Howren/Gibbons Media

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The Crusader 9MAESTRO February 14, 2013

Catwalk forCancer


Photo by Ashley Herbert/Gibbons Yearbook Photo courtesy of Jennifer Robertson Photography and Dave Davies Photography

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Photo by Nicole Howren/Gibbons Media

Photo courtesy of Jennifer Robertson Photography and Dave Davies Photography

The male models were (left to right) junior Kyle Rohner, seniors Ryan McCarthy, Cody Nagy, Michael Lim, Robbie Marquart, Rodrigue Achu-Sile, Jake Zawada, Nick Rinz, Michael Catania, Bennett McKinley, Matt Fitzgerald, and junior Kevin McKendry.

Students modeled formal wear on loan from various stores from around the Triangle, which also had prom wear on display in the school’s front lobby before the show. Participating vendors included Savvi Formalwear on Glenwood Avenue, VIP Formalwear and Cache in Crabtree Valley Mall, and The Impeccable Pig, Madison, Symbology, and Fab’rik in Cameron Village.

Before the modeling portion of the show, breast cancer survivor Ellie Argaluza spoke about her experience dealing with breast cancer treatment and how she over-came her struggle with the disease.

In addition to the formal wear on loan, juniors Morgan Manning and Samantha Geaslen modeled dresses they designed and created as part of their Fine Arts class.

“Designing my own dress was something that I had always wanted to do and the costume construction class at Gibbons gave me that opportunity. Mrs. [Lexie] Dillon helped me through the whole process with suggestions on fabrics and design ideas. She told me to just have fun with it and that’s what I tried to do,” said Gea-slen, via text.

After the show, participants and organizers alike felt they were part of some-thing special.

“The models had a lot of fun and we raised over two thousand dollars for breast cancer research. That’s really all we could have asked for,” said senior Rachel He-bert.

“I was really glad that we managed to raise so much money for such a great cause and it couldn’t have turned out any better,” said Rilley.

Students show off the latest in prom fashions, raising money and awareness in the process



Page design by Inside and Out Editor Rebecca Camak and Managing Editor Sean Feick

Photo courtesy of Stehanie Kelley

Q& A with future Oxford scholar Stephanie Kelley

Sean FeickManaging Editor

Senior Stephanie Kelley found out in Janu-ary that she had been accepted into the world-renowned Oxford University in Oxford, England. According to the college counseling department, Kelley is likely the first Gibbons student to be ac-cepted into this prestigious university. In order to get her acceptance, she went through a selective ap-plication process that included both written essays and a face-to-face interview at Oxford in the United Kingdom in December. She will be studying English Language and Literature at the world-famous uni-versity this fall.

Kelley spoke with the Crusader via text inter-view.

Q: How does it feel to be accepted into such a prestigious university?

A: I don’t think it’s sunk in yet- I’m still wait-ing for them to email me back and say it was all a mistake. But so far it feels pretty surreal, and I’m overwhelmed with gratitude.

Q: What are you going to be studying at Oxford?

A: I’m going to be studying English Language and Literature.

Q: When and why did you decide to apply to Oxford?

A: I think I decided to apply a few months be-fore the application deadline in October last year. I thought I’d have no chance, but there was no harm in applying. What I liked about Oxford is that it has the tutorial system, which is a weekly one-on-one meeting with a faculty fellow. You write essays, read them out loud, and discuss them, in addition to at-tending lectures and classes. I like the intimacy of that. Oxford is also one of the best places to study English, because it has a rich literary history and an excellent faculty.

Q: How do you feel that your time at Gib-bons has prepared you for college?

A: There were several Gibbons teachers that prepared me for college. My AP English class ju-nior year led me to decide to study English, and Mr. [Michael] Friedman always made sure I was read-ing challenging books outside of class. Without him and teachers like Sister Janet [Schemmel] and Dr. [John] Sprague, who taught me work ethic, dedi-cation and curiosity, I would never have decided to apply. Also, Gibbons Debate taught me how to speak on my feet, and develop arguments, which is essential for college and any kind of interview.

Senior Stephanie Kelley was recently accepted into the world-renowned Oxford University in Oxford, England, where she will study English Language and Literature.

Oxford University is located in the United Kingdom, and is among the oldest private colleges in the world.

Snow can’t bring us down

Seniors Brenna Elmore, Lauren Gustainis, Annie DiSano, Re-becca Wiley and Robbie Marquart enjoy their last pep rally at Gibbons.

The varsity cheerleading performs their routine at the pep rally to help pump up the crowd.

Sophomore Penn Harrison and junior Xander Saleh control the music for the dance and cheerleading routines.

Seniors Davis-Ann Bilodeau and Mac Donahue participate in the pep rally partner game involving an intense race around the gym.

Bottom Left: Sophomore Jake Curtis kicks off the pep rally by playfully imperson-ating his father, Principal Jason Curtis.

Right: Senior McKenzie Lang displays her figure skat-ing talents by roller blading around the gym with Senior Andrew Cochrane.

A student led conga line dances to band preformances and closes out the pep rally.

Seniors Bianca Gartner, Alexa Pursley and Elena Morgan help cheer on their peers and add life to the pep rally.


Photo by: Darsey Williams/Gibbons Media


Photo by Darsey Williams/Gibbons Media

Photo by Darsey Williams/Gibbons Media Photo by Darsey Williams/Gibbons Meda

Photo by Darsey Williams/Gibbons Media Photo by Darsey Williams/Gibbons Media

Winter pep rally remains lively despite snow delays


Page design by Managing Editor Sean Feick

INSIDE & OUT

The Crusader is the official student newspaper of Cardinal Gibbons High School in Raleigh, North Carolina.

As a school of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Raleigh, The Crusader will not purposefully publish any material that contradicts the teachings of the Catholic Church.

The Crusader will endeavour to publish only the truth, to the best of its ability. The Crusader will not purposefully publish any stories that are libelous or disingenuous nor any images which diverge from the essential truth of the captured image. Only images legally obtained or for which permission has been granted will be published.

The Crusader is the product of class work and as such is subject to prior review by the adviser and administration. Regardless, the commentaries contained herein are the opinions of the newspaper staff only, and do not necessarily reflect those of the faculty/staff or administration.

The Crusader editorial board as a whole will be responsible for determining editorial opinions, which represent the opinions of the majority of the editorial board. No single member of The Crusader will be held responsible for editorial content decisions.

All submissions to The Crusader will be considered for publication either in print or online but may be edited for space and content.

Please contact The Crusader by email at [email protected].

Editorial Policy

Continuing a tradition of journalistic excellence

Re-established 200110th anniversary 2001-2011

Andrew MihokSports Editor

Sean Feick Managing Editor

Rebecca CamakInside & Out Editor

Caroline Young A&E Editor

Andrew SchnittkerSports Editor

Dan Jukic Adviser

Brennan DohertyEditor-in-Chief

Erik BorchersOnline News Editor

Stephanie ToddNews Editor

Preston MoserSports Editor

Cheyenne WoodProduction Editor

Anthony PalumboNews Editor

Kristina RuppOp-Ed Editor

Lorenzo MacaisaPhoto Editor

Kelly Brown A&E Editor

Catholic Schools week According to . . .

Favorite Event of Catholic Schools Week?

Did you go to a Catholic Midle School?

One Word to Describe Catholic Schools Week

Kevin Salcido

SophomoreSnow Day InspiringYes The Snow

Favorite Part of Catholic Schools Week

Shelley Horman

FacultyNoPep rally Uplifting The Excitement

Sean doggett

FreshmanSnow Day Yes Encouraging Middle School

Pictures

Xander Saleh

JuniorPep Rally No Illuminating Pep Rally

Yes ColdRachel Hebert

Senior

Shortened ClassesSnow Day

By junior Morgan Holub

By junior Caroline Czuhai

By junior Madison Bonavita

The Strips in this edition of Crusader Comics are produced by Mr. Kemple’s “Intro to Sequential Art” Class.To submit your own ideas/work for the paper, contact art teacher mr. Kemple at [email protected]

By junior Jake Olinger

Not An Axe Murderer

Normal Girl

The Unfavored

Hartford & Lochland: Woodland Detectives

wanna appear here?

Page design by Arts & Entertainment Editor Kelly Brown

Fine Arts Festival showcases student talent


Photo courtesy of @msgdrama

Some cast members of The 1940’s Radio Hour looking over the music for the show in preparation for rehearsals.

Photo by Darsey Williams/Gibbons Media

Percussion students practice for their showcase in the Fine Arts Festival.

Photo by Kelly Brown/The Crusader

From Left: Guitar teacher David Spencer, juniors Austin Fissinger and Issac Derr, and seniors Chris Schnupper, Joey Hoellerich, and Jacob Comello perform at the Fine Arts Festival.

Photo courtesy of @msgdrama

Drama II students gasp during a improvised scetch perfomed at the Fine Arts Festival.

From left: Seniors Celia Burger, Bianca Gartner, and Lauren Keeling, all performed solos in the Fine Arts Festival.

Photo courtesy of Brooks Owens

Gibbons Drama preparing for next productionRehearsals begin for spring musical ‘The 1940’s Radio Hour’Caroline YoungArts & Entertainment Editor

A new year, a new semester, and a new Gibbons theater production. The Gibbons drama program has begun preparing for their latest show, The 1940’s Radio Hour, a musical follow-ing the events at the WOV, a small New York radio station, as various perform-ers come together on December 21, 1942 in order to record a Christmas broadcast for overseas troops.

“The 1940’s Radio Hour is set in an actual radio station in New York City in 1942. It’s a pretty honest recreation of what radio broadcasts were like during that time period,” said drama teacher and the show’s director Kevin Fergu-son.

Auditions were held in the last few weeks of the fall semester, and 65 in-terested students came to audition, according to Ferguson. The show fea-tures a small cast however, with only 13 scripted characters.

“Most roles are double cast and some are triple cast because I just had too many talented kids show up, wonderful kids who wanted to do this,” said Ferguson.

The show will be held in the studio theater, featuring a small set and cozy atmosphere to recreate the feeling of radio broadcast stations in the 1940’s.

Instead of having four performanc-es of the show, like most of the Gibbons drama performances, The 1940’s Ra-dio Hour will have twelve, due to both the large cast and the limited seating in the studio theater.

The cast has begun rehearsals, with the main focus being on the music of the show.

“The music for this show is hard. There are lots of harmonies, so we’ve really been working hard on the music for the past two weeks. We really want it to be musically proficient, so we’re going to be spending a lot of time on the music,” said Ferguson.

Gibbons Dance performed dance solos at the Fine Arts Festival. “They did an amazing job. I am thankful for their time and talent.” said dance teacher Brooks Owens. They had about 30-40 people in the dance studio. It was a very laid back, informal showcase. Dancers were able to meet eighth graders and parents that will be at Gibbons next year, and also were able to talk about the upcoming spring dance concerts on

Gibbons percussion presented the Gibbons community with songs prac-ticed in percussion IV and V.

“I think the festival went well, the advanced ensemble was showcased. The atmosphere was wonderful and the crowd was very enthusiastic about hearing us play,” said percussion teacher Hal Sargent.

Gibbons drama showcased students in different drama classes’ talents for this year’s Fine Arts Festi-val. The drama decided they wanted to keep skits from Gibbons upcoming show The 1940’s Radio Hour under wraps until opening night in March. Students from different middle schools and parents seemed to really enjoy the performances by our drama students.

“Students from middle schools were very excited to be a part of the program in the future,” said drama teacher, Michelle Giannini.

Drama I and II students per-formed scetches that they created and improvised. Gibbons Drama heard only positive comments.

“It’s always fun to be able to give our students the chance to share their work, especially when it is some-thing they are so passionate about,” said Giannini.

April 9-11. Due to the space, solos were the best for the dancers to perform. Seniors Celia Burger, Lauren Keeling, and Bianca Gartner showcased solo’s. “I love being able to share dance education with the Gibbons commu-nity and beyond. Students get to share their God-given talent [of] dance,” said Owens.

Percussion chose On Fire because it was the piece that percussion IV and V class is currently working on and they wanted to get the chance to play it for the community.

“It’s a thrill to get to play in front of fellow classmates and for them to get to see what we do in class,” said Sargent.

Gibbons arts programs provide a sample of their work

Gibbons band were happy to be able to have the privilege show their fine art to the Gibbons community. Having parents there supporting them along with friends and classmates, it was truly an honor. They all had an amazing time performing at the Fine Arts Festival.

They performed the songs The General by Dispatch and Wagon-Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show.

“It was culturally enriching to play for some many parents and upcoming Gibbons students,” said junior Victor Madormo.

“I was happy to perform because guitar has been a part of my life for several years and I enjoy getting the chance to perform and play music with my classmates and friends,” said senior Brandon Bales.

Having all of the fine arts per-forming at the same event provided for an upbeat and entertaining atmo-sphere.

Kelly BrownArts & Entertainment Editor

Guitar/band program

Drama programDance program

Percussion program

See www.cghsnc.org/crusaderae for what the visual arts and choral programs did during the Fine Art Festival!


Page design by Arts & Entertainment Editor Caroline Young

Arts & Entertainment

The Crusader Album ReviewsThe Head and the Heart’s second album Let’s Be

Still has sold over 300,000 copies world-wide, and Rolling Stones magazine gave the album 3 out of 5 stars, saying “it’s a great way to slow down, relax, and listen”. Let’s Be Still continues the heartfelt honesty of telling listeners a story that the band began in their first album.

The Head and the Heart accomplish more on Let’s Be Still then their previous album, The Head and the Heart, by better presenting their ability to write and arrange melodies; they deliver a more ma-ture set of songs that tell more mature stories.

They manage to convey a balance between being cliché and pretentious. The tender vocals of singer Charity Rose Thielen on the hopefully depressing “These Days Are Numbered” or the duet perfor-mance of “My Friends” add a soft tenderness to the brutal honesty of the album.

The lyrics convey more emotion than their pre-vious album, The Head and the Heart. Their more recent album is as relatable as it is engaging.

The Head and the Heart features layers of har-

monies in their songs, starting slow and building up to a great chorus. These harmonies are especially powerful in the song “Another Story”, where a calm emphasis on the lyrics “Every time I hear another story/Oh the poor boy lost his head/Everybody feels a little crazy/But we go on living with it,” evoke a strong emotional response that could be alluding to the recent public and violent tragedies, warning soci-ety on how easy it is to become out of touch with the world.

Their song “Fire/Fear” is not your typical love song. You might want to leave your iPod on repeat to really let the lyrics of this song sink in. The haunt-ingly beautiful chorus “I want to feel the fire again, with you or anybody else/I want to feel the fear again, with you or anybody else” draws on the feel-ing of a lost love, making it relatable to its listeners. The Head and the Heart have a sound simi-lar to that of other indie bands and performers such as Mumford and Sons, Of Monsters and Men, and Phillip Phillips. If you like any of those artists, you will want to check out this album.

The Head and the Heart are currently on tour in the United States. They also just made a recent visit to North Carolina in November of last year.

Kelly BrownArts & Entertainment Editor

Some artists grow with their second album, some artists fail. Young the Giant changed.

Mind Over Matter is more than simply a sec-ond album; it is, arguably, a realization of the band Sameer Gadhia, Jacob Tilley, Francois Comtoi, Eric Cannata, and Payam Doostzadeh always wanted to be.

The results is that Young the Giant’s sophomore album, released on January 21, 2014, blows its first release, Young the Giant, out of the water.

Mind Over Matter transforms Young the Giant from a radio-friendly, just-barely-indie-pop group of long-haired sentimentals into serious, guitar-blast-ing, arena-worthy rock stars.

Gone are the poignant, earnest lyrics, document-

ing a lover’s heartbreak; crashing in as a replacement are songs like “It’s About Time” with angry lyrics seemingly destroying any sentiment.

The monumental transformation is not the al-bum’s most praise-worthy asset, however important it may be.

As is the case with many second albums, the pro-ducers have seemed to perfect their understanding of Young the Giant’s vocal range and stamina, and have learned how to push lead singer Sameer Gadhia to his limit, resulting in explosively powerful vocals to compliment the complex music, at times seeming chilled-out-indie, and at times seeming nearly metal.

The composition compliments perfectly Gadhia’s tremendous voice in songs like “Crystalline” and “Firelight,” where his impossibly long notes blend with, not overpower, the atmospheric music.

Kristina RuppOp-Ed Editor

Mind over Matter

Childish Gambino is a very talented actor also known for his music. His music has always been en-joyable with very nice instrumentals. He’s not the most popular artist, but he’s becoming more popular every time he releases an album or mixtape. Gam-bino’s not just any other rapper; his lyrics are very creative and unique, with excellent word play incor-porated.

Some people say he’s not close to talented, be-cause his rapping style seems to mad or no flow with his raps. They don’t think that when he is rapping being mad is his style sometimes, which is what makes him so unique. Unlike most rappers Childish Gambino also sings in his music, he can make either a hip-hop song or a nice and soothing R&B song. His

wonderful singing voice and creative lyrics with in-credible rap flow is what makes him one of the most talented rap artist.

He exhibits both excellent rap technique and a soothing chorus where he shows off his singing voice. A lot of people liked the song though for having a poppy beat sounding like an electronica song and a catchy chorus which made the song sound like it had many different genres in it, so it was opened to a va-riety of people.

He released a mix tape Royalty, which showed a great use of bass in his album and sounded more modern with a touch of Gambino’s original style. The most popular song off the mix tape was Unneces-sary, which sounded modern with a lot of bass drops and a touch of a trapping style. Gambino’s slow rap-ping style sounded very good with his excellent and creative lyrics that just made the song better, with the people featured on the album.

Lorenzo MacaisaPhoto Editor

Because theInternet

Beyoncé’s new self-named album Beyoncé has shocked the pop, rap, and R&B charts for weeks now. The album released December 12th, and only three days after releasing the album it had already sold 617,000 copies in the US alone.

The new album contains 14 new songs and 17 new music videos, and it includes collaborations with her husband Jay-Z, Drake, Nigerian writer Chi-mamanda Ngozi Adichie, her daughter Blue Ivy, and Frank Ocean.

Beyoncé’s album somewhat rejects the “norms” of the music industry. She took many ideas from her sister Solange, who produces her own twist on R&B music; Beyoncé also includes echoes, abrupt stops, and brings two separate songs together to make one. All of these differences and side roads taken from the mainstream music industry have made this album so popular and unique.

Another thing that sets this album apart is the 17 music videos; critics are calling this a “visual album” because of the music videos for every song and more.

Some prominent songs on this album that have stayed on the Top 100 charts for iTunes for weeks

now include “Drunk in Love”, “Mine”, “XO”, “Parti-tion” and “Flawless”.

“Drunk in Love” is collaboration with her hus-band Jay-Z. It’s a soulful song about the power of love and its effect on people. This song is one of the few that sound the most like her old music.

“Mine” is her collaboration with Drake; this song is somewhat the opposite of “Drunk in Love” and is written about the rocky parts and patches that come with a serious relationship. “Partition” and “Flaw-less” are examples of her not so mainstream tracks. Both of these include breaks, echoes and piecing to-gether of two separate songs that somehow gel into a great track.

This album has great beats and intense lyr-ics; boys may like the background music, although maybe not the mushy love lyrics and feminist vibe throughout the album, most prominently displayed in the song “Flawless”.

I would recommend this album to any girl in high school. The lyrics may be a little much for some-one younger than a freshman or 8th grader. Beyoncé has produced some of her greatest work with this al-bum and hopefully will continue to shock and shape the music industry by taking large risks such as this album.

Rebecca CamakInside & Out Editor

Beyoncé

Let’s Be Still


Page design by Sports Editors Preston Moser, Andrew Schnittker and Editor-In-Chief Brennan Doherty

Local Sports Editorials

Permission for use granted by Robert Willett/The News & Observer

Jeff Skinner’s revival sparks HurricanesFormer rookie of the year returns to stellar form after down yearAndrew SchnittkerSports Editor

As the ACC schedule comes down the home stretch, the same points of consistency still reign supreme.

Behind senior leadership, experi-ence, teamwork, and toughness, teams like Syracuse and Virginia shape the top tier of the conference. Seniors like CJ Fair for Syracuse are the main cause for all of the success. The Orange have started 23-0 for the first time in pro-gram history, and have risen to the top spot in the national ranks, according to the Associated Press. It is hard to see Syracuse running the table though, be-cause of tough road games at Duke and at Virginia later this month. Even with a lot of the season still to go, the Or-ange are, with the help of Hall of fame Head Coach Jim Boehiem’s trademark 2-3 zone, looking like the best, most balanced team in the nation.

For Virginia, they have been under the radar for some time now. Se-nior Joe Harris is one of the toughest players in the country. It doesn’t hurt the Cavaliers that they have a pretty good supporting cast to back him up. Another senior for Virginia is Akil Mitchell who holds down the paint de-fensively, and helps Virginia to be one of if not the best defensive teams in the country.

The Cavaliers, at 17-5 and 8-1 in conference play, have the most favor-able schedule out of the teams con-tending for the ACC crown, with their only game remaining against a ranked team coming against Syracuse at home on March 1st.

For the triangles big three teams, Duke, North Carolina, and N.C. State, things seem to be on the up and up. All three of these teams are play-ing better as of late, but Duke seems to have stepped forward as the best team in the state of the North Carolina.

The Blue Devils, behind NBA lottery picks, Jabari Parker and Rod-ney Hood, have bounced back with a vengeance after a slow start in con-

‘Cuse and Cavs form top tier of new ACC

Preston MoserSports Editor

ference play. The Blue Devils are still defending their home court, without a loss at Cameron Indoor Stadium on the season, and have turned the corner on the road, winning two out of the last three. Going into the week of January 27th, it was looking like the Blue Dev-ils could take two losses, as they took a road trip up north to battle against ranked teams in Pittsburgh and Syra-cuse.

Duke wasn’t going to be denied against Pitt, throttling the Panthers from behind the arch. Later that week, when Duke faced off against Syracuse, there was the biggest crowd ever to at-tend a college game (35,446). Regard-less, the Blue Devils almost pulled of an incredible upset against the Orange, falling by two points, in overtime.

The Blue Devils arch rival, North Carolina, is also playing very well in the last couple of weeks. The Tar Heels have won 5 consecutive games, and have bounced back to go over .500 in conference play. If the Heels can con-tinue this level of play, behind the lead-ership of Junior James Michael McA-doo, Carolina should not only make the big dance, but will be very capable of making some serious noise.

N.C. State is also playing more consistent as of late, despite a horrible first half on the road against the Tar Heels. The Wolfpack have shown ma-jor toughness in winning four of their last five over Maryland, Georgia Tech, Florida State, and Miami despite inju-ries to ACC leading scorer TJ Warren and freshman big man Beejay Anya. The Wolfpack have gotten sparks off the bench from sophomore Tyler Lewis and junior Dezmond Lee.

The future is bright for the pack, but they have to win games against lower tier and top tier teams in the ACC in order to make their third consecu-tive NCAA Tournament appearance under head coach Mark Gottfried.

Teams change, and so do the standings, but the main things that success leans on is senior leadership and toughness.

Permission for use granted by Chris Seward/ The News & Observer

After his hat trick goal had sealed an overtime win in a key game against the division rival Washington Capitals, it was clear that Jeff Skinner was back with a vengeance.

The Jeff Skinner of his rookie year, the one Hurricanes fans had been pining for and the team desperately needed in the two years since then, has returned, and he is better than ever.

Skinner now leads the team in goals with 23 in 46 games, and is sec-ond to Eric Staal in points with 40, although he has played eight fewer games than the captain. Skinner’s 21 goals have him tied for 10th overall in the NHL.

In the two seasons since scoring 31 goals and 63 points, winning the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s rookie of the year in 2010-11, Skinner struggled.

In both the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons, Skinner got off to strong starts, only to have his season’s de-railed by concussions.

Skinner missed 16 games in 2011-12, and six games in 2012-13. In both cases, Skinner was not the same after he returned.

Skinner once again got off to a strong start this season, leading the team in scoring until he went down with a hand injury on October 24th, missing 11 games. Skinner once again struggled to find his game for a few games, and it looked like it would once again be a promising campaign derailed by injury

for the Canadian winger.Then, when the calendar flipped

from November to December, every-thing changed.

Skinner scored five goals in two games against Washington and Nash-ville on December 3rd and 5th, including his first career hat trick against Nash-ville.

That was just the beginning for Skinner, who scored 12 goals and 16 points in the month of December alone.

Skinner’s hot streak continued into January, as he scored the afore-mentioned hat trick against Washing-ton, adding goals against Toronto and Nashville as well. If Skinner continues on his current pace, he will score 38 goals and 70 points, easily career highs for the 21 year old sniper.

Not only has Skinner been scoring goals, but he has been scoring clutch goals. He has six game winners on the season, which leads the team. Not only that, but the team has a 10-3-3 record when Skinner scores a goal.

While the power play has been a struggle all season for the Hurricanes, Skinner has been a bright spot on the man advantage, as he leads the team with nine power play goals of the 27 the team has scored this season. This means, Skinner is responsible for 33% of the team’s power play goals.

In a season that has been mostly up and down for the Carolina Hurricanes, the offensive contributions of Jeff Skinner have been a constant bright spot. The team must come together to make a strong push for a playoff spot in the second half, but if they do, Jeff Skinner is ready to lead the charge.

Carolina Hurricanes left wing Jeff Skinner celebrates after scoring the game-winning goal in the team’s 2-1 win against the Nashville Predators on Sunday, January 5. Skin-ner’s improved play following multiple injuries has been a huge factor in the Hurri-canes’ recent success.

Virginia power forward Akil Mitchell celebrates during the Cavaliers’ win over UNC on January 20, 2014. The Hoos are ascending towards the top of the ACC behind league leading Syracuse.

Wolfpack, Tar Heels and Blue Devils steadily improving

The Crusader 15February 14, 2014 Sports

In his six seasons as head wres-tling coach at Panther Creek, Jon Arm-field’s teams measured their success with postseason results.

But in his first year coaching at Cardinal Gibbons, The two-time Tri-9 coach of the year hasn’t concerned himself with wins and losses quite yet.

Instead, teaching the fundamen-tals of wrestling to his extremely youthful team has been Armfield’s fo-cus.

“We’re just focused on execution of technique, learning, and creating a competitive desire to win,” explained Armfield.

After all, 13 of the 17 Gibbons wrestlers are underclassmen with little to no wrestling experience.

While Armfield isn’t used to coach-ing a team with such inexperience, he has kept things loose.

“I have to remind myself to have patience and we keep it fun. We haven’t been focusing on wins or losses because a lot of these kids are going up

Armfield focuses on basics in first year at GibbonsFormer Panther Creek coach not worried about wins and losses

Brennan DohertyEditor-In-Chief

against guys that have been wrestling for a few years,” said Armfield.

The experience gained by many of the younger wrestlers is sure to help them in the future, Armfield believes.

“I think it [the experience gained] will be extremely valuable,” said Arm-field.

“Wrestling gets a lot of first year sophomores in the sport. I always hear kids say once they become seniors they wish they would have started their freshman year.”

One freshman that has stood out to Armfield is Derek Rose, who competes in the 160 pound weight class.

Rose believes that he has improved drastically since the beginning of the year and that he has benefited greatly from Armfield’s coaching.

“He pushes you. He helps you and makes sure you learn more. He just makes you want to wrestle and pushes you to be the best that you can be,” said Rose.

While Rose is just one of the many youngsters who wrestle for Gibbons, The Crusaders have depended great-ly on their lone healthy senior: Nick Witham.

Witham is a four year wrestler and Armfield sees him as a model for his younger teammates on and off the mat.

“He’s one of the hardest workers in the room. He has a lot of experience and he does it the right way. He’s got a 4.9 GPA, he’s a member of National Honor Society and he has aspirations to go to the University of Chicago and he’s already been accepted to NC State. Nick’s going to be real successful at whatever he does so he’s done a good job showing what can be accomplished at the high school level,” said Armfield.

Witham competes within the 182 pound weight class and has hopes to go deep within the NCHSAA individual wrestling championships.

“I’m feeling really good about it. I think I’m well prepared and the next few weeks are going to be hard but they’re going to be well worth it,” said Witham.

Over the course of his wrestling career, Witham has learned a lot from former Gibbons wrestlers Matt Wil-liams and Patrick O’Neill—both of whom won state championships in 2011 and 2012.

“They taught me most everything I know. They taught me how to do proper stance, how to act like an up-perclassmen and how to have fun with the sport,” said Witham.

One of the nice perks of this sea-

Contributed photo

son in Witham’s mind was finally re-ceiving a permanent home location for matches as Gibbons now competes in the school’s new auxiliary gymnasium which opened in February of 2013 as a part of the school’s Building The Vision project.

“It’s great compared to the past three years. The first year we wrestled in the closet that used to be the percus-sion room, and then the year after that we wrestled at a storage unit connected to my dad’s furniture shop and after that we wrestled in the lunch room at the Old Cardinal Gibbons [Western Boulevard Campus] which had neither air conditioning nor heat. This is awe-some,” said Witham.

Witham said that he has enjoyed having Armfield as a coach and that he has really put an emphasis on the team

aspect of wrestling.“He really increased the team ca-

maraderie and made it more fun of a sport. He really made it a team sport instead of an individual sport,” said Witham.

Looking ahead to next season, Armfield is convinced that this past year will only help his team in the fu-ture.

“Wrestling is one of those sports where the technique is a big part of it and it takes a while to learn it. It takes a while to drill it. So for these guys this year was a big learning year to learn technique that they can carry on into next year. So the learning curve won’t be as steep next year for a lot of these young guys,” said Armfield.

Contributed photo

Gibbons senior wrestler Nick Witham, shown above against J.F. Webb on Janu-ary 8, hopes to go deep into the NCHSAA individual wrestling championships.

Swimming’s bid for state championships falls just short Andrew MihokSports Editor

The Gibbons men’s and women’s swimming season came to an end as the men’s team finished 2nd and the wom-en’s team finished third in the 2014 3A state championship. The men’s team finished with 267 points, 30 points be-hind Chapel Hill. The women’s team ended up with 244 points, 122 points behind winner Marvin Ridge. The

men’s squad had won the last seven state championships, while the wom-en’s team was trying to claim their first since 2009. Both of the swimming teams were runners up at the 3A east regionals, which were held on Febru-ary 4th at the Triangle Aquatic Center.

Junior Noah Cairns came in first place winning the 500 Freestyle, as well as winning the 200 Freestyle. Winning both of the events helped him to win North Carolina Most Valuable

Swimmer. Sophomore Emily Dykstra was runner up in the 200 Freestyle and senior Andy Lui took 5th place in the 50 Freestyle.

For Gibbons in the state champi-onship, there were crucial swims that Blanton felt they needed to win.

“We have some very strong dis-tance 200 and 500 swimmers and we have high expectations for the sprint relays,” said Blanton.

Gibbons’ diving team had four members advance to the state cham-pionship. Seniors John Krawczyk, Matt Fitzgerald, Trevor Burns, and Tim O’Donnell all placed in the top ten of the 3A state diving championship. Fitzgerald placed 4th, Krawczyk placed 5th, O’Donnell came in 9th, and Burns rounded out the group coming in 10th.

For assistant coach Taylor Blan-ton, the most gratifying part of this team is their ability to perform at the highest level. Also, the tough sched-ule Gibbons faced this year has helped them in their quest for a state champi-onship.

“The opportunity to swim against the local 4A schools have given us the best opportunity to compete for the state championship,” said Blanton.

In the east regional championship Cairns came in first with a school re-cord in the 500 Freestyle and Dykstra also won the 500 Freestyle. The wom-en’s 200 Free Relay team also came in first during the regional championship.

Junior JD Humphrey was awarded North Carolina Sportsmanship Award.

Photo from @swimteam_cghsnc

Junior Noah Cairns poses with his trophy after he was named the most valuable swimmer in North Carolina at the NCHSAA 3A state championship meet on Saturday, February 8th.

Page design by Sports Editors Andrew Mihok and Andrew Schnittker and Editor-in-Chief Brennan Doherty

Freshman wrestler Derek Rose takes on an opponent from Northern Vance on Friday, January 31. Rose is one of the 13 underclassmen wrestlers on Jon Armfield’s team.

Freshman Colleen Clifford swimming breast stroke during the Big Eight Conference championship meet on Wednesday, January 22nd.

Photo by Ashley Herbert/Landmark Yearbook


Page Design by Sports Editors Preston Moser and Andrew Schnittker

Sports

Crusaders near perfect in Big Eight playLeadership and ‘taking one game at a time’ is the focusPreston MoserSports Editor

tality will not change this week. Every game is important for seeding purpos-es.” said Lowe.

Lowe is proud of how the team has held it together throughout the confer-ence slate.

“As a coach I am proud if this teams work ethic. They have come every day willing to work hard for the good of the team. We would not have come this far without that work ethic. I love coming to work with my team every day.” said Lowe.

Weather has had its effect on the team as the senior night game against Cedar Ridge was rescheduled from tuesday to monday. Gibbons won the game 61-29. The next game and the last game of the regular season is on Friday, on the road, against rival, Cha-pel Hill.

Senior Morgan Reid looks to attack the basket against Southern Durham on Friday, February 7. Gibbons won the game 57-51.

After starting off conference play 2-3, the Gib-bons men’s basketball team has won five of their last seven games and the Crusaders (12-10, 7-5) hold fourth place in the Big Eight conference with two games remaining in the regular season.

The team’s four game winning streak was snapped on Friday, February 7, as Southern Durham defeated Gibbons 50-47.

Despite the close loss, head coach Marque Car-rington believes his team has made great strides within the past month.

“Things are starting to come together a little bit. We’re defending better. We’ve got some guys step-ping up on both ends of the floor, so we’re just trying to keep it going,” said Carrington.

One of those players who has stepped up for Gib-bons is junior shooting guard Logan Bugg.

While the Crusaders usually look for senior pow-er forward Moses Romocki (16.2 points per game) and junior small forward Justin Reid (11.4 points per game) to do the heavy lifting on offense, Bugg has served as a reliable third option during Gibbons’ recent stretch of improved play as he has scored in double-digits in three of the last four games.

Carrington believes that one big reason for Bugg’s emergence is his transition into more of a complete player instead of being just a three-point specialist.

“He’s been playing really well. The key with Lo-gan is he’s been doing other things between shoot-ing behind the three-point line. He’s actually been driving to the hole; he’s been shooting some pull-up jump shots. He’s been mixing it up a lot, so he’s been more than just one-dimensional. He’s stepped here in the last couple of games. I’m proud of him,” said

Home stretch crucial for men’s b-ballCrusaders hot and cold as the season winds down

Brennan DorehtyEditor in Chief

Senior Megan Comstock accepts the sportsman ship award at the indoor track NCHSAA 3A state championship on Friday , February 7.

Carrington.Still, much of Gibbons’ success rests on the

shoulders of Romocki.It’s been many years since Gibbons has had a

scorer as reliable and consistent as Romocki has been, Carrington says.

Romocki has scored at least 10 points in all but one game this season.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve been able to count on a guy to actually score in double figures. It’s nice going into a game saying, ‘Oh he’s going to score in double figures.’ It’s been a long time since we’ve had that. That helps and it’s big,” said Carrington.

While Gibbons’ loss against Southern Durham ended a winning streak, Carrington hopes that his team won’t be deterred and will be able to keep play-ing well against Cedar Ridge and Chapel Hill to close out the regular season.

“It’s not the end all be all. We just have to take care of these last two, learn from it and move on,” said Carrington.

With changes to the NCHSAA playoff format this season, only the top three teams from each confer-ence automatically qualify for the state playoffs and every other school selected is considered a wildcard that’s picked based on their overall record.

Gibbons can automatically secure a spot in the playoffs if they were to win the Big Eight conference tournament, but even if they don’t, the Crusaders will have a chance to play in the postseason as long as they finish with a final record of .500 or better, which is considered to be the unofficial cut off line for the playoffs.

With that in mind, Gibbons’ two final regular season games along with the conference tournament are crucial.

“We’ve just got to get ready. At this point of the year, Cedar Ridge on the road is the most important game,” said Carrington.

Photo by Ashley Herbert/Landmark Yearbook

The Gibbons men’s and wom-en’s track teams are currently enjoy-ing strong regular seasons. Since the Christmas break, the team has had two meets.

The first was on January 11th at UNC. Head coach Nick Mangum called this meet a “rust buster” to get the teams back in the swing of things.

“I thought it went really well, we had some good solid performances,” said Mangum.

On Saturday, January 16th, the team hosted 16 county schools in a home meet.

“That went very smooth, we had some great races,” said Mangum.

Several runners ran qualifying marks for the State Championship.

In the 3200 meter run, junior boys David Edwards and JT Klimek quali-fied, along with senior girls Mary Grace Doggett and Rachel Bartolomeo quali-fied. Junior Megan Vaughn qualified for the 1600 meter run. In the 1000

Andrew SchnittkerSports Editor

Junior Justin Reid shoots a foul shot in a 47-42 win over J.F. Webb on Tuesday, February 4.

meter run, Vaughn, Doggett, Bartolo-meo, and sophomore Connor Peeples qualified.

The team competed in the NCH-SAA 3A state championships on Fri-day, February 7th.

The girls team finished second overall, and the boys team finished 16th.

The team enjoyed several strong individual performances, with several runners finishing in the top 10 or 20 state-wide.

“I think it went well, most of our kids ran well and had good days,” said Mangum.

On both the boys and girls sides, there were several state and national top rankings.

Junior Sophia San Miguel finished top 10 in pole vaulting.

Senior Megan Comstock finished in the top 20 in pole vaulting and won the NCHSAA sportsmanship award.

Sophomore Sophie Ebihara fin-ished in the top 20 in the 1000, 1600, and 3200, and was the top sophomore state-wide in the 3200.

Doggett and Ebihara finished first and second in the state in the 3200,

Photo by Maddie Smith/Landmark Yearbook

The Cardinal Gibbons Women’s basketball team continues its strong performance as conference play winds down the home stretch.

With recent victories over North-ern Vance and most recently Southern Durham on Friday, February 7th and over Cedar Ridge this monday the Cru-saders have moved 12-1 in conference.

The key with the Crusaders success is to not looking ahead to the confer-ence and state tournaments, and focus-ing on the next game on the schedule.

Moving forward going into the state playoffs, the team’s mindset is most important thing according comes to head coach, Jessica Lowe.

“All season long we have tried to take it one game at a time. Our men-

putting them at 30th and 31st nationally.Edwards finished in the top 20 in

the 3200 and was the fourth best ju-nior state-wide.

Peeples finished 5th in the 1600 and as the top freshman in the 3200 state-wide in his first ever indoor state meet.

In her first state meet since moving to North Carolina, junior Kayla Gandy finished in the top 25 state-wide in 55 meter hurdles.

Mangum feels the state meet most-ly lived up to his expectations.

“For the most part, everyone ran very well, I was pleased,” said Mang-um.

The spring track season officially begins on Wednesday, February 12th.

The team’s next meet is over two weeks from now on Thursday, Febru-ary 27th at Cary.

After that, the team will race just about every week through the middle of May according to Mangum.

“We have a lot of training and rac-ing ahead of us, we’re in a good place right now,” said Mangum of the com-ing spring season.

Winter track sets strong pace at statesSeveral runners achieve top state and national marks

Photo from @XC_CGHSNC

The Crusader - Issue 5 - February 2014 - Catwalk for Cancer cover

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