Madison Feehery, a Florida state champion swimmer, has verbally committed to Notre Dame. Feehery, an incoming senior at Barron Collier High School, was named the 2020 Naples Daily News Female Athlete of the Year. Though the COVID-19 pandemic prevented her from meeting Notre Dame athletes and coaches in person, she exchanged text messages and video chats with them, and her mind was made up after taking an unofficial visit to the university last weekend.
Glad to share the news. Rising Senior Madison Feehery @madisonfeehery has committed to the University of Notre Dame! @swimswam @SwimmingWorld @FloridaSwimLSC @collierschools @NDN_PrepZone @NDSwimDive
Congrats Nugget! pic.twitter.com/ZNvgxEy9fS— T2 (@T2Aquatics) July 8, 2020
Feehery’s state championship last season came in the 50-yard freestyle. She also placed second in the 100-yard butterfly and was on two top-five relay teams. Barron Collier was the Class 3A runner-up in the state finals.
Feehery comes from a swimming family. Her older sister, Emma, just finished her freshman season at North Carolina, so the two could compete against each other at the collegiate level, maybe more than once. Their mother swam throughout high school, and their father was a swimmer at La Salle. An aunt and uncle also swam for the Tar Heels.
It was Emma who pushed Madison towards Notre Dame. Emma swims for North Carolina, but the Irish were her second choice. While it might seem preposterous for some that a person would push his/her sibling toward a conference rival, blood is thicker than water. That’s definitely the case for the Feeherys.