LEXINGTON, Va. – The Catamounts won the 200 Free Relay for the second straight year Thursday night as Vermont moved into third place at the 2026 America East Championship hosted by VMI with a strong second day of competition. The Catamounts now sit tied for third place with UMBC at 228 points. Bryant continues to lead the way with 310 points while UNH is in second with 256 points.
 
RELATED LINKS
Day 2 Results (.pdf)
CatamounTV: 200 Free Relay
 
COACH'S QUOTE
"We had a really strong day today," said Head Coach Gerry Cournoyer. "Our coaching staff is proud to watch our student-athletes staying focused on not getting caught up on outcomes."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• Ellie Fazio, Havana Layton, Natalie Schick and Anastazja Szukala earned All-Conference honors leading the Catamounts to the 200 Free Relay win. UVM's winning time of 1:32.32 was .30 seconds ahead of New Hampshire.
• It is the second straight season UVM has won the 200 Free Relay and the seventh time in the last 11 years.
• The Catamounts placed fifth and sixth in the first two individual events of the finals Thursday. First years Kara Cullinan (4:59.04) and Amy Kenworthy (5:00.46) earned top-six spots in their conference championship debut.
• In the 200 IM Natalie Schlemmer (2:03.60) and Emma Freer (2:03.86) finished back-to-back in fifth and sixth. It was a career-best time for both of them.
• In the 50 Free the Catamounts placed fifth through seventh. Layton was fifth with a time of 23.29, Szukala was sixth in a time of 23.53 and Fazio was seventh in a time of 23.61.
• First year Valerie Velez was the Catamounts top finisher in 3m diving, she placed 10th with 223.35 points. Classmate Robyn Tonomura-MacDonald was 14th with 208.75 points. Senior Nanna Atake was 18th with 187.80 points. 

WHAT'S NEXT
Following Thursday's action, the Catamounts will continue to compete in the America East Championship with Day Three on Friday, February 20. Preliminaries will begin at 10 a.m. in the 100 Fly, 400 IM, 200 Free, 100 Breast, 100 Back followed by finals at 5:30 p.m. including the 200 Medley Relay. All of Friday'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.
 
Speeder & Earl's Coffee is the presenting sponsor of Vermont swimming & diving