MWHS senior signs National Letter of Intent to continue education, athletics at Bucknell University

Monroe-Woodbury School District is proud to recognize Monroe-Woodbury High School senior Meghan Catherwood, who recently signed her National Letter of Intent to attend Division 1 Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa.

Meghan will compete on the Bison’s Swimming & Diving team.

While at Monroe-Woodbury, Meghan has competed as a member of the Varsity Swimming & Diving team and the Varsity Golf team. She has earned first place in the OCIAA Championships (2019), second place in the Section IX Championships (2019), 10th place in the NYSPHSAA Championships (2019) and Most Valuable Diver (2019). She is the school record holder for 11 dives.

She was also named Most Valuable Player on the Varsity Golf team (2019).

Meghan’s coaches include Justin Wright, Patrick Capriglione and Elizabeth Feldhaus (M-W Varsity Swimming & Diving) and William Earl (M-W Varsity Golf).

‘Never give up’

“I want to thank all my coaches and teammates for pushing me to be the best I can be,” said Meghan. “I will forever be grateful for the opportunities they gave me and for helping me achieve all of my goals. I could not have done this without them.”

When asked what advice she has for younger students, Meghan said: “With all the challenges presented this year, I want to encourage younger students to continue working hard and to never give up. Even though things may not always happen as planned, keep a positive attitude and set high goals because opportunities always exist for you to succeed.”

Breakout season

From the perspective of Meghan’s coaches:

Heading into her junior year she began training year round, working with Hudson Valley Dive Club in the off season to prepare for the upcoming season.

As August hit, Coach Pat Capriglione and Meghan worked hard to develop her dive list and the season culminated with her reaching the podium in both the OCIAA championships (eighth place) and Section Championships (sixth place). The perseverance continued heading into Megan’s breakout season (junior year).

Meghan continued her off season work and as high school season rolled around she trained hard with fellow state caliber teammates Molly Crowely and Leah Levin to put together an amazing season. Meghan was the OCIAA Champ, runner up in Section Championships and took home a state medal.

In addition, Meghan set a new school record for 11 dives.

Work ethic, grit, intensity, modesty and kindness

Meghan walked on to the pool deck in the fall of 2017 with her mom to check out diving, to find out what it was all about. She was super quiet and seemingly shy but you could immediately tell she had an intense focus about her. Coming off an injury from another sport, Meghan couldn’t participate immediately, but she did get right to work on learning the sport. She spent that year getting familiar with everything and asking coach Pat Capriglione a lot of questions and working hard.

In addition to Meghan’s feats on the diving board, she is a true role model for her teammates. She exemplifies all the things a coach would look for in a program including academic focus, leadership, work ethic, grit, intensity, modesty and genuine kindness toward her teammates and coaches.

Congratulations to Meghan and her family on all of her well-deserved success! Best of luck at Bucknell!

Caption: MWHS Senior Meghan Catherwood signed a National Letter of Intent to attend and dive for Division 1 Bucknell University.

Caption: M-W celebrates 2019 State Championship. From left:

Leah Levin, Molly Crowley, coach Pat Capriglione and Meghan Catherwood.

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