LEXINGTON, Va. – The Catamounts 200 Medley Relay and 800 Free Relay team earned podium places Wednesday evening leading Vermont on the opening night of the 2026 America East Championship hosted at VMI. After the first day of competition the Catamounts sit in fifth place with 75 points. Bryant leads the pack with 114 points while UMBC is in second with 96 points and UNH rounds out the top three with 94 points.
RELATED LINKS
Day 1 Results (.pdf)
Day 1 Photo Gallery
COACH'S QUOTE
"We had a really strong showing tonight with our relays," said Head Coach
Gerry Cournoyer. "We're looking forward to day two where the depth of our team will get involved and help us greatly"
HOW IT HAPPENED
- The Catamounts opened the swim portion of the championship placing second overall in the 200 Medley Relay with a time of 1.41.90 from Natalie Schick, Ellie Fazio, Jessica Drozdowski and Havana Layton. Bryant won the relay with a time of 1:39.62 setting a new conference, pool and meet record. It was Bryant's second straight AE Championship win in the event.
- First year Valerie Velez was the Catamounts top finisher in 1m diving, she placed 11th with 211.95 points. Classmate Robyn Tonomura-MacDonald was 14th with 199.35 points. Senior Nanna Atake was 18th with 167.80 points.
- Night one wrapped up with the Catamounts placing third overall in the 800 Free Relay. Lauren Clark, Emma Freer, Katie Lester and Anastazja Szukala finished in a time of 7:29.79. New Hampshire won the relay for the second straight year with a time of 7:20.52.
WHAT'S NEXT
Following Wednesday's action, the Catamounts will continue to compete in the America East Championship with Day Two on Thursday, February 19. Preliminaries will begin at 10 a.m. in the 500 Free, 200 IM and 50 Free followed by finals at 5:30 p.m. including the 200 Free Relay. 3m diving prelims are also scheduled for 1:45 p.m. All of Thursday's action can be streamed live on ESPN+ and an international stream is available at AmericaEast.TV.
For more news about the Vermont swimming & diving program, follow @UVMswimanddive on Instagram, @UVMswimming on X and Facebook, and visit UVMathletics.com.
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