Women's Swimming & Diving Leads NESCAC Championship Through Saturday's Action

MIDDLETOWN, CT (February 14, 2026) - The Tufts University women's swimming & diving team leads the 2026 NESCAC Championship meet after three days of action at Wesleyan University. Senior Madeleine Dunn won her second individual conference title of the meet with a victory in the 1000 freestyle on Saturday night.

Following Saturday's results, the Jumbos have a team score of 1262.5 points that is just 26 points ahead of second-place Williams College (1236.5). Colby College is third at 952 points.

Dunn, who won the 500 freestyle on Friday night, now has six NESCAC Championship victories to her name. Her 10:00.97 time to win the 1000 free tonight marks the third time in her career that she was won the event, including the last two. Her time ranks second nationally for the event. First-year Cloe Nader had a strong third-place showing in the 1000 free with a 10:15.54 swim, while sophomore Lila Stober was 11th (10:36.47).

Tufts trailed Williams by 20 points tonight heading into the three-meter diving event, which was Saturday's final competition. However, the Jumbos outscored the Ephs 70-24 in three-meter diving to take the lead at the end of the third day of action. Senior Malia Leung led the Jumbo divers with a 426.85 score for fifth place, while junior Arya Gupta scored seventh (387.45) and first-year Anya Buyea placed eighth (383.10). Leung's total is above the NCAA B qualifying mark (410).

Tufts had four swimmers score in the top 10 of the 100 backstroke final tonight. First-year Abby Davis led the way in fifth place with a 56:34 time. Sophomore Olivia Pettit was eighth (56.93), sophomore Noa Chambers ninth (56.72) and senior Madison Hagberg 10th (56.83). Davis' mark was under the NCAA B cut, though it did not improve upon her previous season-best time.

Junior Sydney Stasz continued to be a factor for Tufts. She led the Jumbos with a third-place finish in the 100 breaststroke final (1:03.20) tonight. She had posted a 1:03.08 in the preliminaries that ranks her second all-time at Tufts and is an NCAA B cut that is a top 20 national time. Senior Quinci Wheeler was fourth in the event with a 1:03.72 B mark in the final, while first-year Emma Shane added 10th-place points with a 1:06.05 time.

For the second day in a row, Tufts had a relay in which both the A and B teams swam NCAA B qualifiers. In the 200 medley relay tonight, the A group of junior Elena Harrison, Wheeler, sophomore Angel Smyrniou and senior Katharine Skelly submitted a 1:42.31 time. That was second at the meet and improved their national-qualifying position to 10th in Division III as of Saturday night. The B foursome of Davis, Stasz, sophomore Angelina Sagaow and first-year Alec Lazorisak won the consolation final with a 1:43.83 time that also beat the NCAA B cut (1:44.23).

Harrison led the Jumbos in the 100 butterfly tonight with her career-best mark of 55.58 seconds for fourth in the final. The time is an NCAA B mark which ranks around the top 20 nationally. Smyrniou also swam a B time of 55.86 for ninth place, while Skelly hit her lifetime-best (56.75) in the prelims.

Three Jumbos in the top 10 of the 400 individual medley were led by sophomore Sophia Knight in fifth place with a 4:32.09 time that is her career-best. First-year Megan Treglia was sixth in the final at 4:32.61, while sophomore Clara Behling contributed a 4:35.94 for 10th place.

The 200 freestyle group was led by sophomore Sweeney Su in sixth place (1:53.47). Sophomore Alli Brown at a 1:53.92 and senior Isa Chambers in 1:55.48 were 11th and 15th respectively. Brown's 1:53.22 time in the prelims was her best ever for the event.

Last year's NESCAC meet was the closest ever, with Williams defeating Tufts by 29.5 points. This year's Championship looks like it will be very tight again. Sunday's action features preliminaries at 10 AM and finals starting at 5:30 PM.