COLCHESTER, Vt. - The Saint Michael's College men's and women's swimming & diving teams conclude their 2024-25 seasons at this week's four-day Northeast-10 Conference Championship, which begins on Thursday at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Massachusetts. Purple Knights earned 19 top-10 seeds in individual events for the meet.
 
Both Purple Knight teams are under their 15th year of guidance by head coach Eileen Hall, the longest-tenured and winningest head coach in the history of the women's program, and the second-winningest men's head coach. In addition to the men posting a 7-3 dual mark and the women going 6-4, both programs won the mid-season CSI Invite in late November. The men tied a school mark for dual victories, matching a standard set just a season ago.
 
First-year Lucas Haynes (Holliston, Mass./Holliston), who set school records in the 500- and 1,000-yard freestyles this winter while winning 21 events, heads into the NE10 Championship seeded first in the 1,000 free, second in the 500 free and fourth in the 200 free. His 9:45.69 seed time in the 1,000 is 9.65 seconds better than the No. 2 seed. Junior Rafael Kowal (Plattsburgh, N.Y./Plattsburgh/Alfred State) sits second in the 200-yard backstroke, fifth in the 400-yard individual medley and ninth in the 500 free in advance of the meet, having captured 26 events and the school's 200 IM mark this year. Kowal was NE10 Championship runner-up in the 500 free last season.
 
Senior Thomas Kane (Sparta, N.J./Pope John XXIII Regional), the winningest male swimmer in school history with 96 career triumphs, is seeded second in the 100-yard breaststroke, third in the 50 free and eighth in the 100 free. He won 25 events this year and set program marks in the 100 breast and 100 IM. Junior Connor Quirbach (Lowell, Mass./Chelmsford), an all-conference finisher in the 200 and 500 free as a first-year, is seeded eighth in the 200. He, Kane, senior Will Englehardt (Sparta, N.J./Sparta) and sophomore JJ Kane (Sparta, N.J./Pope John XXIII Regional) also combined to break a program record in the 400-yard medley relay this winter, one of Englehardt's school-record 15 relay victories. The Purple Knights' 200 free and 400 medley squads are both seeded fourth for the NE10 Championship.
 
Junior divers Sebastian Revesz (Bedford, Mass./Bedford) and Ashley Silveira (Seekonk, Mass./Seekonk) will both represent the Purple and Gold in the one-meter event, with each drawing a No. 6 seed.
 
Sophomore Madeline Waldt (Abingdon, Md./The Catholic High School of Baltimore), who nabbed 19 wins this season, is seeded seventh in the 1,000 free while sitting 10th in both the 500 and 1,650 free events. Senior Jessie Hart (Canton, Mass./Canton) drew 17 wins en route to being seeded sixth in the 100 breast and 10th in the 200 breast. Classmate Margaret Wilk (Hardyston, N.J./Pope John XXIII Regional) is 10th in the 200 back, 11th in the 100 back and 12th in the 200 IM, having earned 18 victories this year and 87 for her career. Sophomore Hannah Steen (Portsmouth, R.I./Portsmouth) won 20 times and holds the No. 9 seed in the 100-yard butterfly while placing 12th in the 50 free. First-year Sydney McSweeney (Warwick, N.Y./Warwick Valley) claimed 23 event wins during her rookie season.
 
The NE10 Championship begins with an evening session on Thursday before the following three days feature both morning and evening events. The men were chosen fourth in a pre-championship coaches' poll, while the women were slotted sixth. Qualifiers for the March 12-15 NCAA Championship head to Indianapolis, Ind.