The University of Connecticut women’s swim and dive team wrapped up an undefeated regular season that fans will remember with a second-place Big East Championship finish behind Villanova. The Wildcats led the pack with 1,534 points, and behind them were the Huskies with 1,316.5 points. Taking bronze with 1,265.5 was Georgetown. All year, this conference was truly full of competition; with close standings and meets coming down to the wire, this Big East Championship was everything swimming and diving fans were anticipating.
The Huskies had a fantastic season, finishing with a perfect 9-0, always finding some way to win at any given meet. This was also head diving coach David McKown’s first season in Storrs, Connecticut. His experience from the University of Indianapolis undoubtedly helped the women, as the Huskies took first, second, third and sixth place in the 3-meter dive. Undoubtedly, diving was a strong point for UConn all year long, hence why McKown was named Women’s Diving Coach of the Year, and sophomore Julia Pioso was named Big East Diver of the Year after taking gold in the 3-meter and second in the 1-meter.
This championship kicked off last Wednesday and went into the weekend, ending Saturday evening. This included the men’s side as well, despite UConn not having a men’s program. On Wednesday, Connecticut was in a five-way race for second place, with 16 points separating the five schools. However, Villanova was already in the lead with 128 points. and at no point after day one lost their lead.
The story of this meet was toss up finishes that could have gone either way. The 800-yard freestyle relay is a perfect example of that sentiment, as UConn swimmers Niamh Hofland, Robyn Edwards, Melissa Lowry and Mia Galat would be edged out by less than five seconds by Villanova’s squad, netting them eight points more than the Huskies. Connecticut missed another first-place finish by a slim margin with the 200-yard medley relay, as Kayla Mendonca, Angela Gambardella, Charlotte Proceller and Maggie Donlevy would swim their hardest and miss first by less than a second— a testament to how stiff the Big East competition truly is.
On Thursday, the Huskies would find themselves more on the right side of things, as Hofland kicked things off with an excellent time of 4:51.21 in the 500-yard freestyle to bring her team gold and net four points over second-place Seton Hall. Donlevy would match this strong opening in the 50-yard freestyle and take gold with a .04 second advantage over Seton Hall sophomore Lea Moeller. To wrap up the scoring for the Huskies, Ana Laura Faoro would lead all divers with a final score of 566.75 points. UConn divers would finish in second, third, and sixth place to help keep the Huskies afloat in the race for first. After the second day, Connecticut trailed second-place Georgetown by 21 points and the Wildcats by over 100 points, who were running away with the competition.
Friday night’s showing was filled with personal bests and entertaining swimming, with UConn’s Hofland being edged out by less than two seconds in the 400-yard IM by Villanova’s Erin Hood. Ella Epes would follow up in the 100-yard butterfly with an electric performance of her own with a time of 54.32, which was a personal best for her. Despite this, she would finish in third place, showing how tough this competition truly was. Another exciting storyline took place in the 400 IM, with freshman Alexis Martino setting a personal best time of 4:22.12. The Huskies brought their A-game for this event. Amazingly enough, her star-filled performance was only good enough for fifth place. After it was all said and done, Villanova led the pack with 1,031 points, and the Huskies would be trailing with 828.5 points with a 21-point advantage over second place.
Going into the final day, Connecticut had seven events they were competing in, and they made Villanova earn their first-place finish. In the first event, Hofland would take silver in the 1650-yard freestyle; she would lose to Allie Waggoner by five seconds. In the 200-yard backstroke, Edwards and Mendonca would take second and third place for Connecticut. Gambardella and Kiera Liesinger would take third and fifth place in the 200-yard freestyle for the Huskies. The weekend would end with the 400-yard freestyle, where Villanova would take the gold in that event. Interestingly enough, first through fifth place all finished within two seconds of each other, showing how competitive these athletes are.
The Huskies had a fantastic year; they are a young team and only getting better. The new coaching staff making the impact that they did on this team is truly remarkable, and UConn swim and dive fans have a lot to look forward to with this program in the future.
