SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Yesterday, the Coast Guard Academy women's swimming & diving team earned first-place finishes in nine of 16 events as they defeated Springfield College, 176-120. It was the last dual in the 2024 portion of both teams' schedules.
Coast Guard improves to 9-0-1 this season and is yet to lose head-to-head to a NEWMAC rival; Springfield moves to 1-4. The last of the Pride's 2024 action takes them to Worcester Polytechnic Institute's annual Gompei Invitational, with the three-day meet taking place from December 6th to December 8th.
Madelyn Paxton (Mechanicsburg, Va.) and
Colleen Read (Annandale, Va.) had the most individual wins for the Bears, earning two each. Paxton placed first in the 100-yard backstroke (1:01.60) and 100-yard butterfly (1:00.12), while Read won the 200-yard butterfly (2:13.92) and 200-yard backstroke (2:08.14).
Grace Keogh (Erie, Colo) finished 0.46 seconds behind Paxton in the 100-yard butterfly, but she would earn a win of her own in the 100-yard freestyle by swimming a 55.09. That race also came down to the wire, with Springfield's
Natalie Chamberlin (Ellington, Conn.) touching the wall 0.02 seconds later.
Another close one between Coast Guard swimmers saw
Liliana Feyk (Carlsbad, Calif.) earn first in the 500-yard freestyle with a 5:29.68, just 0.1 seconds ahead of
Megan Doubrava (Aurora, Colo.).
Other individual wins for the Bears included
Zoe Suhajda (Colorado Springs, Colo.) in the 1,000-yard freestyle with an 11:21.27; team captain
Ellie Hiestand (Telford, Pa.) in the 200-yard breaststroke with a 2:29.56; and
Tailyn Schaufelberger (Austin, Tex.) in the 200-yard individual medley with a 2:14.48. Earlier on, Schaufelberger and Hiestand had a photo finish for second place in the 100-yard breaststroke, with the former swimming a 1:09.24 to beat her teammate by 0.05 seconds.
Lara Baronsky (Victory, N.Y.) placed fourth on the 1-meter diving board with a score of 133.21. Coast Guard would close out the meet on top with the team of
Mikayla Jolley (Las Vegas, Nev.), Feyk, Halvorson, and Keogh swimming an 8:06.67 to take first in the 800-yard freestyle relay, beating Springfield's top team by 12.26 seconds.
The Bears will end 2024 at Wesleyan University (Conn.) for the Cardinals' annual Jayden Szkirka Memorial Championships. The two-day meet gets going on December 6th at 6 p.m.
