CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — 

Zoe Suhajda (Colorado Springs, Colo.) persevered to a bronze medal in the 1650 Free as the United States Coast Guard Academy women's swimming & diving team closed out the 2026 New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Championships on Sunday as runners-up to hosts Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

With a nor'easter expected to hit the northeast in the evening, the meet's format saw a change from the usual 10 AM preliminary races and 6 PM finals. Instead, the day saw all races competed in a times finals format. Each event saw multiple heats, going slowest seed time to fastest, with the final times reordered by speed.

Suhajda took third in the mile at 17:51.01, and she was backed up by Liliana Feyk's (Carlsbad, Calif.) sixth-place time of 18:25.30 and an Alaina Riggs (Tehachapi, Calif.) effort of 18:32.48 for eighth. Sam Halvorson (Chesapeake, Va.) cracked the top ten of a tight 200 Back field, touching the wall in 2:06.48 for fifth.

The first-year duo Julia Thomas (Chandler, Ariz.) and Kendra Hiigel (Pembroke Pines, Fla.) were the ninth and tenth finishers in the 100 Free with respective times of 53.84 and 54.06 seconds. Mikayla Jolley (Las Vegas, Nev.) completed the 200 Breast in 2:25.83 to claim seventh.

Megan Doubrava (Aurora, Colo.) took on the 200 Fly and swam 2:07.86 for ninth. The final event of the weekend saw the crew of Thomas, Halvorson, Hiigel, and Kathleen O'Shea (Decatur, Ga.) swim to fourth place in the 400 Free Relay, with the team from Wheaton beating them out by just one second.

Bears women's swim & dive will now transition into the offseason, but Madelyn Paxton (Mechanicsburg, Va.) will hold her breath until Thursday to see if she'll take a trip to Indianapolis for the NCAA Championships with her 2:05.48 B-Cut time in the 200 IM.