Two More Event Marks Fall, Men Finish Fourth as NE10 Championship Concludes

WORCESTER, Mass. - The Saint Michael's College men's swimming & diving team finished a school-record fourth when the Northeast-10 Conference Championship came to an end on Sunday at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) Sports & Recreation Center. The men and women combined for a pair of event records, while junior diver Ashley Silveira (Seekonk, Mass./Seekonk) earned the NE10 Elite 24 Award thanks to toting the highest cumulative grade-point average among all student-athletes from women's teams at the meet.

STANDINGS

The men placed a school-record fourth among seven schools with a school-record 422 points, holding off the College of Staten Island by nine points. The Purple Knights' prior points mark was 405, set at the 2010 NE10 Championship, and they had finished fifth on five occasions.
The women were seventh out of eight institutions with 291 points, within 27 of sixth-place Adelphi University.
In all, 10 school records fell during the championship, with the men setting eight. All five men's relay standards were reset. Senior Thomas Kane (Sparta, N.J./Pope John XXIII Regional) had a hand in six records, junior Rafael Kowal (Plattsburgh, N.Y./Plattsburgh/Alfred State) notched five, and senior Will Englehardt (Sparta, N.J./Sparta) and first-year Lucas Haynes (Holliston, Mass./Holliston) both claimed four.
Southern Connecticut State University swept the men's (912) and women's (1,081) titles.

MEN'S MEET
SAINT MICHAEL'S LEADERS

Englehardt, 1 school record
Haynes, 1 school record
Kane, 1 school record
Kowal, 1 school record

THE ACTION

In the final event of the championship, Englehardt, Haynes, Kane and Kowal broke a November 2023 school record in the 400-yard freestyle relay (3:09.31) by 1.29 seconds. Englehardt, Kane and Kowal had also played hands in the former mark. The quartet came within 0.15 seconds of the first all-conference finish by a relay in program history.
Kowal was fifth in the 200-yard backstroke (1:55.17), junior Alex Meek (Essex Junction, Vt./Essex) placed 14th (2:03.36), and senior Brendan Hopping (Ipswich, Mass./Ipswich) was 16th (2:13.03).
First-year Nate Alexander (Liverpool, N.Y./Liverpool) captured eighth in the 1,650 free (17:40.57), followed by sophomore Cal Baird (Saratoga Springs, N.Y./Saratoga Springs) in ninth (17:52.45).
Englehardt won the 100 free B final to take ninth overall (47.18), 0.16 ahead of the 10th-place Kane (47.34). Englehardt dropped 2.32 seconds off of his seed time in the morning trials, the best in the top 31, to miss qualifying for the A final by only 0.13 seconds. Junior Connor Quirbach (Lowell, Mass./Chelmsford) finished 16th in evening finals (50.25).
Sophomore Hunter Daily (Amherst, N.H./Souhegan) clocked in at 2:16.29 during a 13th-place 200-yard breaststroke finish to come within 0.29 seconds of Sean McGurn's '22 five-year-old school record. First-year Dylan Reichl (Loudonville, N.Y./Shaker) missed qualifying for evening finals by 0.58 seconds during the morning prelims.
During the 200-yard butterfly, sophomore JJ Kane (Sparta, N.J./Pope John XXIII Regional) took 14th (2:05.95) and Alexander was 16th (2:12.63).

WOMEN'S MEET
SAINT MICHAEL'S LEADERS

Senior Jessie Hart (Canton, Mass./Canton), 1 school record

THE ACTION

In her final career individual race, Hart won the 200 breast B final in 2:27.67, placing ninth overall and trimming Lauren Giampietro's '20 five-year-old school record by 1.05 seconds in the process. During morning prelims, Hart missed qualifying for the A final by only 0.22 seconds. Senior Katie Dzambo (Windermere, Fla./Bishop Moore) was 13th in finals (2:40.70) and sophomore Ashley Meade (Belle Harbor, N.Y./Sacred Heart Academy) took 14th (2:41.42).
Dzambo, Meade, sophomore Ayden Walsh (Tallahassee, Fla./Creekside) and first-year Sydney McSweeney (Warwick, N.Y./Warwick Valley) combined to place sixth in the 400 free relay (3:43.64).
Junior Riley Beaudoin (Groton, Mass./Groton-Dunstable Regional) touched the wall seventh in the 200 fly (2:21.92) and first-year Katie Rocha (Stratham, N.H./Exeter) was 16th (2:30.58).
Sophomore Madeline Waldt (Abingdon, Md./The Catholic High School of Baltimore) finished seventh in the 1,650 free (18:35.90) after entering as the 10th seed, and first-year Shay Callanan (Shaftsbury, Vt./Mount Anthony Union) took 11th (19:24.00) after being seeded 16th.
Senior Margaret Wilk (Hardyston, N.J./Pope John XXIII Regional) placed 10th in the 200 back (2:14.22), while junior Livy Waranis (Narragansett, R.I./Narragansett) was one spot shy of qualifying for finals during the morning trials.
Sophomore Hannah Steen (Portsmouth, R.I./Portsmouth) was 0.19 seconds away from advancing to the 100 free evening finals during morning prelims.