NEISDA Swimming Focused on Little East Conference Championships This Weekend

By Diana Pimer, Swimming World College Intern

KEENE – The bulk of New England Intercollegiate Swimming & Diving Association (NEISDA) swimming will be following the nation by competing in midseason events this week.

The NEISDA schools with both men’s and women’s teams include Bridgewater State University, Colby-Sawyer College, Elms College, Gordon College, Husson University, Keene State College, University of Massachusetts- Dartmouth, University of New England, Norwich University, Regis College, Roger Williams University, St Joseph’s – Maine and Saint Michael’s College.

Eight institutions have only women’s teams — Eastern Connecticut State University, Plymouth State College, Rhode Island College, University of Saint Joseph – Connecticut, Simmons College, Western Connecticut State University, Western New England University and Westfield State University.

North Country Invitational

While most NEISDA schools will compete this weekend, two institutions posted fast swims before the Thanksgiving holiday. Both the men’s and women’s teams from Saint Michael’s College and Colby-Sawyer College competed in the North Country Invitational on Nov. 21 and 22. By a narrow margin, the Saint Michael’s women captured the team title by three points. The efforts by their 400 freestyle relay team of Katrina Wiesner, Kimberly Brady, Julie Shea and Lindsey McNall clinched the victory by scoring a second place finish with a time of 3:45.89.

McNall also had previous success during the weekend when she won the 100-yard (59.69) and 200-yard backstroke (2:07.70) events. Her performance in the 200 puts her in striking distance of achieving an NCAA ‘B’ cut come February, (2:05.47) a standard she dipped beneath last season at the NE-10 Championship with a time of 2:04.06.

Another double-event winner at the North Country Invite was Colby-Sawyer’s Krystyna Estrada. The CSC senior and captain won the 50-yard (25.17) and 100-yard (55.23) freestyle events. Teammate Elaine Miller was not far behind with a second place finish in the 50 with a time of 25.66. On the men’s side, Saint Michael’s Pierce Farrington picked up wins in the 50-yard freestyle (21.93) and 100-yard butterfly, (52.48) and backed up his victories with a second place finish in the 100-yard freestyle (48.30).

Colby-Sawyer Invite

While Saint Michael’s will be taking this weekend off from competition, Colby-Sawyer will be hosting its own invitational with Western New England University and Gordon College. Erika Sheinhait will give Estrada and Miller the most competition in the sprint events (26.85 and 57.56). For Gordon, India Boland and Daniel Fauber will be the swimmers to watch. Boland is currently second in the conference in the 100, 200, 500 and 1,000-yard freestyles (55.01, 1:58.43, 5:16.36, 10:51.72). Fauber is fourth and sixth in the 50 and 100-yard butterfly events (24.79 and 54.43). Both swimmers will be trying to keep their rankings and continue their success.

Little East Conference Championship

The Little East Conference Championship will be held at UMass-Dartmouth on Saturday Dec. 6. This one-day timed finals women’s meet will add some fast times to the NEISDA Conference. Participating teams include UMass, Keene State, Eastern Connecticut, Plymouth State, Rhode Island College, Western Connecticut and Westfield State. In last year’s competition, Keene State won with 668 points, ECSU came in second with 304 and UMass came in third with 151. The relays and sprint events could be ECSU’s key to narrowing the margin between first and second place in the overall score.

Keene State swimmers Caitlyn Shea and Amber Long will be looking to defend their conference titles and records. Shea currently holds LEC records in the 200-yard (1:57.22) and 500-yard freestyles, (5:13.02) while Long owns the 400 IM with a time of 4:43.44. Long will be challenged most by her KSC teammates, while Shea will be fighting off ECSU Warriors Rebecca Stewart and Macaire Jones and UMass freshman Christina Deveaux.

In addition, Westfield State’s Katie Sterpka has won every diving event for the last two years. As a freshman, she placed second on both boards only to teammate Kimi Schmidt. As the conference record holder on both boards, (266.31 and 246.20 points) history may be made with Sterpka finishing in a near-perfect fashion.

Great Northeast Athletic Conference Invitational

The other small-conference meet taking place this weekend will be the GNAC meet hosted by Simmons College. Other participating schools are Elms College, Husson University, Norwich University, Regis College, Saint Joseph’s ME and Saint Joseph’s-CT. Unlike the LEC, this men’s and women’s championship will execute a two-day trials/finals format.

The Simmons women and Norwich men will be looking to reclaim their team titles as GNAC Champions. The Simmons Sharks will be lead by the sophomore dynamic duo of Miriam Swisher and Shylee Stewart. Swisher is the reigning GNAC champion in the 50-yard and 200-yard freestyles. Stewart finished second in the 50 last year, and raced to victory in the 100-yard breaststroke. Also in the mix from Simmons will be freshman Natalie Giraldi in the 100-yard breaststroke. Giraldi has a chance to win the event at this meet, and currently holds the fourth fastest time in the NEISDA conference this year (1:11.77).

Despite coming in third as a team last year, the men’s meet was dominated by Regis swimmers Alexander Graf and Kiet Luong. Graf won the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyles, while Luong claimed the 100-yard butterfly, 100-yard backstroke and 200-yard backstroke events. The Regis Pride and Elms Blazers will be the best challengers to defending Norwich. Individually, the Blazers lost standout breaststroker Ethan Etheridge when he transferred to Keene State, so they will look to distance swimmers Stephen Lynch and Nick Cirillo to score big. Also in the hunt in the distance events are Stefen Koberl and Asa Wolfe of Norwich.

Gompei Invitational

Roger Williams and Bridgewater State will not be competing in any conference match-ups this weekend, but they will both be attending the Gompei Invitational at WPI Dec. 5-7. Last year, the RWU women finished third behind WPI and Assumption College. Hawks junior Hailey Martel will be looking to defend her 50, 100 and 200-yard breaststroke titles. She is the meet-record holder in the 50 (30.93) and 100 (1:07.54). Martel’s biggest challenger will be Rachel Gagnon of Assumption (1:06.38).

Two other Hawks have opportunities to win highly competitive events this weekend. Roger Williams has a standout sophomore duo of their own in Shannon Earley and Andrea Almandoz. Almandoz will most likely be swimming the butterfly and IM events, as she was last year’s champion in the 50-yard (26.78) and 100-yard butterfly (59.63). Earley won her signature event, the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:10.40. Earley has already been 2:10.91 this season, so a victory and dipping under the 2:10 barrier are likely from the young talent.

The Roger Williams men also finished in third place last year. Christian Moran and David Kitchen will most likely be the Hawks top-scorers. Moran will be looking to move up in the NEISDA rankings in the sprint freestyle events (22.48 and 49.51). He won the 100 last year and was the runner-up in the 50. He will face tough group of WPI sprinters. Kitchen took third in the 50, 100 and 200-yard breaststrokes last year, and has a chance to move up in all three of the distances. Bridgewater State did not compete in the Gompei Invite last year, but one swimmer to watch this year is freshman Kyle Swardstrom. He will be the Bears’ highest point scorer swimming the distance freestyle events.

Schedule

Dec. 5-7: Gompei Invitational
Dec. 6: Colby-Sawyer Invitational
Dec. 6: Little East Conference Championship
Dec. 6-7: Great Northeast Athletic Conference Invitational

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