Katie and Mark ran into each other at Catholic ministry events a few times their plebe year. Mark caught Katie's eye at the SEEK retreat during February of their plebe year, but they hardly spoke to each other. Her crush lasted into plebe history class all of second semester.

Katie travels to France along with a couple other childhood friends to visit her friend Lauren who was studying abroad in Metz, France. Having a crush on Mark, she jokingly took a photo in front of the Metz sign and said, "Look girls, this is my future last name!"

Katherine "shoots her shot" by asking Mark to Yearling Winter Weekend, a banquet for the yearlings (sophomores) in February. As the Vice President of her class, she would be sitting at the superintendent's table for the dinner and used the excuse that she "needed a great guy to sit with" to ask Mark. He said yes!

Katie invited several of her girl friends from home in Indiana to attend the banquet. They served as awesome "wing-women" for Katie throughout the weekend with Mark and his friends in NYC!

Yearling Winter Weekend! Mark survived the superintendent's table at the banquet and impressed Katie.

Katie's friends captured several pictures of Katie and Mark throughout their weekend in the city. The two of them definitely hit it off!

The weekend after Yearling Winter Weekend, Katie and Mark went on their first real date. They sat down at a nearly empty pizza place. About 5 minutes into eating, a guy entered the restaurant and started throwing punches at one of the workers! The guys went at it- chairs were even thrown! Amid the violent fighting, Katie and Mark walked out and were handed a to-go box for their pizza which was now totally free. Can’t beat a free first date!

On their second date, the pair ended up at the Newburgh Casino! After letting the House take too much of their money, Mark and Katie decided to take a risk with their last $8 in the Roulette machine, putting a few dollars on black and the remaining money on the number 14. And guess what number it landed on?! 14!! There’s a 2.63% chance of that happening! They took their payout of over $80 and left the casino feeling like winners.

At the end of summer, Katie traveled to Cumming, Georgia to meet Mark's family. As an only child, Katie was a bit shocked by the massive Metz family, but she loved it! The trip was filled with a Baptism, playing with nieces and nephews at the waterpark, Mark's birthday, and playing games.

Army Wrestling Table Draft. Mark invited Katie to the Army Wrestling team's exclusive event- the Table Draft. Seniors on the team "draft" other teammates to their lunch tables in the mess hall for the semester.

The Metz family has three West Pointers so far, and during the 2023-24 academic year, Mark, Joe, and Teresa were all there at once! Katie enjoyed hanging out with the Metz siblings throughout the year- they called themselves "The Gang."

Over Labor Day weekend, Mark and Katie enjoyed showing Teresa around the city for the first time her plebe year!

Katie's parents, Jennie and Jerome, visited West Point in September and met Mark (and his siblings!). Mrs. LaReau's first reaction meeting Mark was, "Katie, he's so gentle!"

Mark also secured the approval of Katie's godfather, Uncle Jamie, that weekend!

Dating at West Point between two engineering majors, one of which is a D-1 wrestler, can be difficult. But, Katie and Mark made it work- turning studying, dinner, Mass, and Eucharistic Adoration into dates.

The semester ended with an Army win at the 124th Army-Navy game in Boston!

The Indy girls returned to West Point for Katie's junior year class banquet- 500th Night, a commemoration of the class having 500 nights until graduation.

And this year, Katie and Mark were officially a couple- no wing women needed!

Katie and Mark got through the grind of second semester and enjoyed the company of their friends on the weekends at places like lacrosse tailgates and the "Firstie"- a bar on post.

Mark finally gets a chance to visit Katie's home in Carmel, Indiana for her cousin Drew's wedding!

Katie knew Mark was a keeper when he showed his eagerness to learn her dad's favorite game Wingspan (aka "Birds"), a veryyy tedious game.

Mark and Katie spent some time together after finals finished before Katie left early to go to an internship at the Pentagon in DC.

Mark's wrestling PIAD training ended a few days early, so he decided to visit Katie in DC for a couple of nights before heading to Ohio for a teammate's wedding.

On the second night of Mark's visit, Katie thought she was getting dinner and drinks with Mark and her childhood friend, Emily, who was interning on Capitol Hill that summer. Turns out, Mark had made a plan with Emily to propose that evening!

Mark proposed at the DC War Memorial, a quieter memorial located in the National Mall.

Mark and Katie could not be more excited to start their married life together!