Men’s swim and dive earns fifth-consecutive NESCAC Title
For the fifth-consecutive year, men’s swim and dive has earned the NESCAC Title.
In an interview with the Record, Barrett Heritage ’25 said the team’s mindset going into the meet was one of determination to prevail over their opponents. “We certainly felt a lot of pressure going into NESCACs, especially with our rival, Tufts, given that they actually beat us earlier at the WPI quad meet,” he said. “We were really hungry for a victory over them and incredibly mindful about posturing ourselves to be really strong against them when it came to finals.”
The hunger paid off. Coming off of the first full day of competition, the Ephs were 123 points ahead of Tufts, their nearest opponent. Having established such a lead, the Ephs never came close to conceding the championship title — in fact, they only extended their lead, ending the four-day meet 168 points ahead of second-place Tufts.
The first session of the meet kicked off with the 800 freestyle relay and a great start for the Ephs. The squad of Alex Atherton ’24, Carter Anderson ’25, Ryan Nunez ’27, and Oliver Schalet ’25 was first to touch in with a time of 6:29.14 as each swimmer pulled off a personal record in their respective legs, contributing to a win by a gaping four-second margin as well as new meet, pool, team, and NESCAC records.
The following day, the Ephs lived up to the first night’s precedent, shattering two more relay records with the 200 free and 400 medley relays. Friday night al- so saw 22 of 24 Ephs qualify for the evening session of finals, with 15 qualifying for the “A” finals. Friday featured 50 yard races for each of the strokes. Notable performances included third place for Heritage in the 50 butterfly with a time of 21.59, a performance which earned him an All-NESCAC honor, and a NESCAC title for Ev Nichol ’23.5 in the 50 backstroke as he established a new meet, pool, and team record with a time of 21.30.
The field of that night’s 200 individual medley (IM) “A” final was half-composed of Ephs representing the four fastest qualifying times. It was Schalet who would triumph with a personal best and new NESCAC record of 1:46.63. Schalet was followed by Jacob Grover ’24 in second, Colin Kavanagh ’27 in fourth, and Harrison Williams ’26 in fifth with times of 1:48.35, 1:50.89 and 1:50.91, respectively.
Saturday’s finals session kicked off with yet another NESCAC record with an Eph relay made up of Michael Grover ’26, Heritage, Nichol, and Theo Randall ’27 taking home a title with 1:26.85 in the 200 medley relay. Extraordinarily, Schalet set a second individual NESCAC record with a time of 3:51.87 in the 400 IM, his fifth record of the meet when counting the Eph relays he contributed to.
Brothers Jacob and Michael Grover represented the Ephs alongside one another in the 100 breaststroke “A” final, placing second and third with times of 54.29 and 54.46, respectively.
Opening the final session’s events on Sunday evening was the 1650 freestyle, with Anderson bringing home the night’s first individual title and his second title of the meet as he cut a staggering 11 seconds from his previous personal record for a first-place finish of 15:22.93.
Among the myriad notable performances of the concluding session were the finishes from Ephs in the finals of the 200 backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly. In the backstroke, Gabe Lee ’26 placed third, earning All-NESCAC Honors with a time of 1:48.14. In breaststroke, Jacob Grover defended his title with a time of 1:58.16, placing first in the event for the fourth time at the NESCAC championships, a career sweep. Nunez rounded out the last of the meet’s individual events with an impressive third place finish in the fly, posting a time of 1:48.65 and earning his second All-NESCAC Honor.
The meet was an appropriate conclusion to a stellar season for the Ephs as the team earned titles in all but one of five relays, 11 first-place finishes, 27 All-NESCAC honors, 10 pool records, nine meet records, and seven NESCAC records amid a slew of personal bests.
Beginning on March 20, qualifying Ephs will compete at the NCAA Div. III Championship in Greensboro, N.C.
Women’s track and field earns second place overall at Div. III New England Championship
Last weekend, the Ephs traveled to Boston to compete in the Div. III New England Championships at The TRACK at New Balance.
Friday saw the Ephs take to the track for a number of distance events, with the Ephs starting strong and maintaining strong finishes throughout the meet. Genna Girard ’24, the reigning 5k champion, won the race again with a time of 17:02.05. Girard was followed by Fiona Picone ’26 and Kate Swann ’26, who placed sixth and 19th, respectively. Lucy Gagnon ’24, returning to the track after leading the Ephs in the mile with a fourth place finish and a time of 4:57.42, finished second overall in the 800m, with a seasonal best of 2:15.70.
The Ephs continued to impress as sprint and hurdle events kicked off. In the 60m dash, Rachel Arthur ’25 ran 7.82 seconds in the preliminary round, a personal best — one that she quickly broke with a new best time of 7.76 seconds in the final round, placing second overall.
In another leaderboard-shifting performance, Bella King-Harvey ’27 stunned as she became the 400m champion with a time of 55.83 seconds, marking both a personal best and a school record.
On Sunday, the Ephs maintained their impressive performance, claiming victory in both the 4x200m and the 4x400m relays. Claire Jensen ’27, Malia Klein ’25, Ella Sukup ’26, Camryn Taylor ’24 won the 4x200m with a quick 1:44.55; Cate Donaldson ’27, Jensen, King-Harvey, and Taylor won the 4x400m with a time of 3:49.44, the second fastest in Williams history.
In an interview with the Record, Jensen described the relay team’s mentality. “We were really just trying to lock in for the 4x400m — we knew we’d have some good competition with MIT there,” she said. “We were hoping to use them to really push us and just see how fast we could go.”
Eph jumpers and vaulters posted a number of personal bests. Rafaela Delgado Carpio-Rivero ’27 and Kelsey Tarby ’27 both put on their best performances yet in the triple jump with marks of 11.72m and 10.74m, respectively, with Delgado’s mark landing her the 17th spot in the NCAA Div. III. Pole vaulters Jae Yu ’25 and Ellie Fitzgerald ’26 both landed in the top 10 of Williams’ all-time indoor performances, placing second and fifth, respectively.
The meet marks the last championship of the indoor season for much of the team. For others, the Tufts Final Qualifier in Medford, Mass., and the All-Atlantic Region Track & Field meet in Rochester, N.Y., this weekend will present the last opportunity to qualify for the indoor NCAA Championship.
Men’s track and field places fifth at Div. III New England Championship
Men’s track and field took on The TRACK at New Balance as well, placing fifth overall at the Div. III New England Championships.
The first session of the meet began on Friday with the 5000m run, won by Chuckie Namiot ’25 who ran a 14:28.88. Jacob Lehmann Duke ’24 and Nikhil DeNatale ’26 followed Namiot, running times of 14:50.43 and 15:01.59, placing them in eighth and 11th, respectively.
Building on to an already impressive season, co-captain Jackson Anderson ’24 beat his own school record with a time of 8.03 seconds in the preliminary 60m hurdles, finishing third during the final round with a time of 8.16 seconds. Nate Lentz ’24 ran a 4:13.47 mile and Oscar Newman ’25 ran a 48.67 second 400m, each placing third overall in their respective events.
John Lucey ’24 and Namiot placed fourth and eighth in the 3000m with times of 8:18.48 and 8:22.82, respectively, the latter a personal record for Namiot.
Relays rounded out the weekend. In the 4x800m, Victor Cazabal ’25, Tom Emery ’27, Zach Liu-Walter ’26, and Ethan Striff-Cave ’27 placed eighth; Anderson, Bryce Cooper ’26, co-captain Jack Davis ’24 and Colin Stone ’27 placed fifth in the 4x400m.
Select Ephs will join the women’s team in Medford and Rochester for a final shot at NCAA qualifying times.
Women’s ice hockey falls to Middlebury in first round of NESCAC Tournament
Entering the weekend seventh-seeded in the NESCAC tournament, women’s ice hockey (8-14-2, 5-10-1 NES- CAC) fell to second-seeded Middlebury Panthers (14-6- 4, 10-3-3 NESCAC) in the first round on Saturday, ending their regular season. The Panthers quickly established their lead, flicking the puck into the Ephs’ net just over two minutes into the first period. Middlebury extended its lead in a similar fashion at the start of the second period, scoring and bringing its lead to 2-0 in less than two minutes.
Capitalizing on their first power play of the night, the Ephs halved the Panthers’ lead as Katie Armstrong ’25 fired a recovered loose puck past the Panthers’ goaltender with five minutes left in the second period, bringing the score to 1-2.
In the first 10 minutes of the third period, however, the Panthers doubled their score, bringing the game to 4-1.
The Ephs persisted, successfully defending two Panther power plays in the last 10 minutes of the game and leaving their net empty twice for a last-minute offensive effort, with Claire Murphy ’26 firing a promising but ultimately thwarted shot. The efforts were not enough, however, and with the game’s end came that of the Ephs’ season.
In an interview with the Record, Chloe Noxon ’26 reflected on the team’s grit. “We just really put our all into every game — even if the outcome or the score wasn’t amazing, we played through the end of every game and that was very apparent in our last game against Midd,” she said. “Even though we were losing 4-1 we still pulled our goalie and were giving it everything we had. The theme throughout this season was leaving it all on the ice and playing for each other and as a team.”
