Charlotte Catholic swimmer Nora McCullagh out for more records
For most of Nora McCullagh’s Charlotte Catholic swimming career, she has been racing to break her own records.
Going into her senior season, McCullagh has been a part of nine individual or relay state titles. She is coming off back-to-back seasons as the Observer’s girls’ swimmer of the year and the state championship meet MVP.
McCullagh has been a part of three overall team state championships, part of a string of 13 straight for the Cougars.
As a sophomore, McCullagh won the 3A 50-meter freestyle title with an all-classification record of 22.92 seconds. She also took the 100 backstroke state crown with a 3A record of 55.09. McCullagh was also a part of the 200- and 400-freestyle relay state championship teams.
As a junior, McCullagh accounted for four more 4A state championships, winning the 50 free (22.88) and 100 backstroke (53.39), breaking her own state records in the process, while also taking the 200- and 400 relays. McCullagh and Co. had no problem proving they could dominate in their first year in class 4A.
This season, McCullagh is looking for a repeat performance.
“It’s always a goal to swim your best time every time you get in the pool,” she said. “To be at your best and to compete with yourself is a lot of fun, I’m not going to lie. But for me, I don’t really think about specific goals and times all the time. I just try to go to the pool and get better and get faster every day.
“I try not to take everything so serious. Mentally that’s just what works for me and it’s the best way to approach things.”
McCullagh, a Texas recruit, is also an All-American for her SwimMAC Carolinas club team. She qualified for the 2012 U.S. Olympic trials at age 14 and has already qualified for the 2016 Olympic trials in the 50 and 100 freestyle.
“Nora has accomplished so many things for Catholic and MAC, already,” Cougars coach Brian Gross said. “But I believe she is just getting started. Once she gets to Texas, she will have a whole new set of goals.
“It will be exciting to see what she can do at the next level and where that might take her in the future. I think she’s got a lot more to come.”
While the Cougars are loaded with talent such as seniors Rebecca Postoll (a Michigan recruit) and Sara Stranick (a Virginia recruit) , they will have challenges going for their 14th straight state title.
They lost five current Division I swimmers from last year’s team: Nicole Emery (Notre Dame), Lauren Rhodes (N.C. State), Maria Sheridan (Duke), Christine Sullivan (Villanova) and Elsa Welshofer (Princeton).
“It’s a huge challenge to carry on the legacy we have at Catholic,” McCullagh said. “We definitely want to keep it going, and I think we have the team to do it again.”
This story was originally published November 17, 2014 at 7:35 PM with the headline "Charlotte Catholic swimmer Nora McCullagh out for more records."