First things first

An overview of developments in women's events

Well, that was an interesting weekend.

Women’s events

• Here are the performances at conference championships, ranked by aggregate SRS, for all swimmers who totaled five or more SRS points.

• We included prelim and final swims. As far as we are concerned, if your prelim swim was so fast that it racked up SRS points, it should go into your total.

• These numbers do not include relays. As such, athletes who played a critical role in relays are probably undervalued (Jennah Fadely and Elle Motekaitis come to mind).

A couple thoughts here.

There is an NJAC swimmer - Rowan’s outstanding Ella Pennington - in the top five. There are two more NJAC swimmers as you go down the list - Braelyn Wilson of Kean and Sydney McCallie of the NJAC champion Salisbury Sea Gulls.

There are now four NESCAC swimmers in the top ten, including three from Williams: Sophia Verkleeren (of course), Carter Roebuck, and Clementine Robins (both sophomores). First-year Natalie Garre is still really fast. Four more NESCAC swimmers round out this list of outstanding performers.

Emory held on to defend their title (now 26 in a row), in a slightly unexpected way. This season, no team in Division III received more value from their first-years than Emory. But the psych sheets made no mention of Allison Greeneway, the Eagles' most productive first-year. And while Caitlin Crysel and Elodie Mitchell made this list and were essential the Eagles’ victory, it was the most senior athletes - grad students Megan Jungers and Penelope Helm - who had the most impressive swims. Joining them on this list are Meredith Liu (junior), Katie Cohen (sophomore) and Ava Kennedy (senior).

NYU’s run at the UAA title made this the most tightly contested UAAs ever.¹ They led going into the last day of the championship meet, and the final margin of victory for Emory was a mere 21 points. The top two performers by SRS are both from NYU - Kaley McIntyre and Nicole Ranile.

Kenyon won the NCAC championship again, led by Gabby Wei’s standout performances in the 200 Breast, 100 Breast, and 200 I.M. Right behind her in measured value was Molly Haag, a consistent contributor who keeps elevating her game. She also has a flair for the dramatic—rewatch the 1650 finish from Saturday for proof. Jennah Fadely earned swimmer of the meet, though her SRS total doesn’t fully capture her impact. She played a key role in multiple relays, including the Ladies' record-setting 400 Medley Relay, and won the 100 I.M.—a legitimate NCAC event, even if SRS doesn’t count it.

Denison made the meet closer than the psych sheet suggested it would be. Denison’s depth makes them especially dangerous in any championship meet format. They received standout performances from pretty much who you would expect: Emily Harris, Quinn Brown, Drue Thielking, Jasmine Park, Emma Pritchett, and Phoebe Ferguson, with serious contributions from Grace Kadlecik and Amber Croonquist. We considered Caroline Ramirez a serious contender for the newcomer of the year award.

The two teams we most overlooked are Tufts and Chicago. We considered Chicago to just be overmatched going against the titans of the UAA and we were wrong. Looking at the division as a whole, Chicago was tied for sixth place with Williams in terms of the number of swimmers with positive SRS swims this weekend. We did not see Tufts coming at all, and they look good. Madeline Dunn is a really valuable distance swimmer, and there are 16 other swimmers on that team that posted SRS+ scores this weekend.

1. The 21-point margin of victory was closest between the top two teams in the 37-year history of the UAA Championships.

• https://uaasports.info/news/2025/2/16/womens-swimming-and-diving-emory-womens-swimming-diving-outlasts-nyu-to-win-26th-consecutive-uaa-championship.aspx