WATERVILLE, ME—The Ephwomen are back at the 2025 NESCAC Championships to defend their title. This year the meet is hosted by the Colby College Mules. The Ephwomen kicked off the meet with a dominating performance in the 800 relay. They won the event for the second consecutive year at the NESCAC Championship and 16th time since 2001. There was also a 200 butterfly time trial.
Last year, the Ephwomen captured its 20th NESCAC Women's Swimming & Diving Championship. They won 11 individual events and swept all five relays for a total of 2,002 points over the four-day meet. Tufts finished as the NESCAC Runners-Up (1,628.5 points). Middlebury placed third for the first time since 2015 (1,020 points) and was followed in fourth by Bates (945.5 points), while Colby placed fifth (858.5 points), marking the Mules' best finish since 2010.
Amherst (1), Tufts (2), and Williams (20) are the only three programs to have won a NESCAC Women's Swimming & Diving title in the event's history, which dates back to 2001.
The Williams B 800 freestyle relay with
Isabel Espinosa,
Bernadette Ramoy,
Kyla Kelley, and
Abi Greenberg started off the evening session. The relay came into the heat with the top seed. Espinosa started the relay off with an early lead with an electrifying 1:53.73, making her championship debut. Ramoy swam the second leg and extended the lead even more with a lifetime best split of 1:52.70 followed by Kelley with the third leg of the relay (1:53.45). Finally, Greenberg swam a strong anchor leg finishing the job and winning the B-heat with a split of 1:53..08.
Then, the Williams A 800 freestyle relay of
Carter Roebuck,
Clementine Robins,
Lily Codd, and
Sophia Verkleeren took the blocks. Roebuck swam a lifetime best time of 1:50.12, touching second after Bowdoin. In the second leg, Robins managed to take the lead on the first 50 with a lifetime best split of 1:50.02. Codd swam the third leg (1:51.93), extending the lead for anchor and captain Verkleeren to swim her way to touch first, finishing with a final time and NCAA B cut of 7:20.87. This was also a lifetime best split for Verkleeren with a time of 1:48.80. This is also ranked the second fastest time swam in Division 3 this season.
After an electrifying first event of the meet,
Gracie O'Connell took on the 200 butterfly time trial. In a blistering 100 split of 1:00.21, O'Connell stormed to the finish in a season best time of 2:08.93.
Williams looks to continue their momentum into the first session of individual races tomorrow morning at 10am. Events include the 50 breaststroke, 50 butterfly, 500 freestyle, 50 backstroke, 200 individual medley, and the 50 freestyle. The top 24 swimmers in each swim will progress to the finals session Friday evening which will also feature the 200 freestyle relay and 400 medley relay. 1-meter diving prelims will be at 2pm and the top 8 divers will compete in the finals session as well.
