On Tuesday, Feb. 25, Villanova swimming and diving continued its success from Day One into Day Two of the Big East Championships. With a new school record, 14 personal bests and six medal performances, the women’s team moved into first place with 563 points and the men now sit in fourth with 188 points.
Senior Patrick Hemingway narrowly defeated the fastest 50-yard freestyle in school history by 0.01 seconds during the 50-yard Free constellation finals.
Hemingway holds the new program record with a time of 20.41. Jake Hoin set the previous record at the 2017 Big East Championships with a time of 20.41.
Day Two brought more gold medals for the women’s swimming and diving team. Sophomore Carlota Colmer led the Wildcats for the first leg of the women’s 200-yard freestyle relay. Joining her was the trio of sophomore Riley Kudlac, senior Lainey Quinones and graduate Lexi Elkovitch.
The women swam the 200-yard relay in 1:31.39 to finish first. They now hold the fifth-fastest time in program history.
In the men’s 200-yard freestyle relay, freshman Zach Sutter, Hemingway, junior Sam Randall and junior Mikey Thurk swam a 1:20.89 to pick up a bronze medal and the third-fastest time in program history.
For the rest of the women, sophomore Peri Gaguzis swam a 4:50.50 in the 500-yard freestyle to finish with bronze. Right behind Gaguzis, sophomore Martina Lonati touched the wall fourth with a personal best of 4:50.65.
some of our individual podium ‘Cats from Tuesday#GoNova | #BIGEASTsd pic.twitter.com/2e9dDrugTI
— Villanova Swimming & Diving (@NovaSwimDive) February 26, 2025
Also earning personal bests in the 500-yard freestyle included junior Katie White (4:53.78) and freshman Amylia Higgins (4:57.79).
Sophomore Anna Farley earned the silver medal in the 200-yard individual medley final with a personal best time of 2:00.36. The next to touch the wall was sophomore Meghan Tiernan who swam a personal best of 2:01.21 and earned bronze.
Freshman Alana Leen and junior Winnie Jalet swam personal bests of 2:02.81 and 2:02.28, respectively, in the 200-yard individual medley as well.
In the diving portion for the women, sophomore Meghan Scott finished fifth in the 1-meter championship final, setting a new personal best of 262.95 points.
The 50-yard freestyle capped off the women’s Day Two. Sophomore Carolta Colomer’s personal best time of 22.87 was a bronze medal finish. In the same event, Elkovitch swam 23.13 and Kudlac swam 23.15, finishing fifth and sixth, respectively.
As for the men, the highlight of the day was the 200-yard individual medley.
Sophomore Justin Nowicki set back-to-back personal bests in the preliminaries and the finals of the 200-yard medley. He swam a 1:48.12 followed by a 1:47.43 in the finals. Nowicki now holds the event’s third-fastest time in school history.
Sophomore Aiden Bunker also swam the 200-yard medley, swimming a 1:49.19 in the constellation final.
Day Three took place Wednesday, Feb. 26, with events such as the 100-yard butterfly, 400-yard individual medley, 200-yard freestyle, 100-yard breaststroke, 100-yard backstroke, men’s 1-meter springboard diving and 400-yard medley relay.
