WELLESLEY, Mass. (February 16, 2025) – WNE wrapped up their season with day three of the LEC Championships on Sunday. Prelims saw the Golden Bears continue their fast racing with best times in every applicable race, with four swimmers earning places in finals. It also included a new team and an LEC Championship meet record. Finals saw the Golden Bears end their weekend in style with more season-best times, a first-place finish, and another new team record.
Results:
Western New England: 7th/12
How it Happened:
The 100-yard Freestyle kicked off the final prelims session of the LEC Championships. Alexa Adams swam first for WNE in the 100-yard Freestyle and earned a 4.33 second season-best time with a 1:02.24. Amanda Pillard joined Adams with a season-best time in the 100-yard Freestyle also. Pillard swam a 1:08.94, which was a best time by 2.50 seconds. The 50-yard Backstroke saw Giada Caruso swim a time of 37.20. Julia Remiszewski continued swimming a great meet with a season-best time of 37.20 in the 50-yard Backstroke and a twelfth-place finish. It was a best time by 1.86 seconds and earned Remiszewski a spot in Sunday's B-Final for the event. The 200-yard Breaststroke saw three WNE swimmers in the race. Gianna Calabrese dropped 5.82 seconds and earned a season-best time of 3:05.04. Amanda Robinson would swim the race for the first time this season and ended the race with a time of 2:55.11. Then, Ella Smith swam the event and earned another first-place finish to earn a spot in the A-Final on Sunday. Smith dropped 6.16 seconds, swam a time of 2:24.61, re-broke the WNE team record in the event, and set a new LEC Championships meet record with that swim. Olivia Emanuele swam the 200-yard Butterfly race and earned another season-best time by 2.19 seconds. Emanuele swam a 2:39.01, which earned Emanuele a seventh-place finish and a spot in Sunday's A-Final. Caitlin Guntly made a return to individual events with the 100-yard IM and dropped 2.91 seconds to finish the race with a season-best time of 1:04.33. That was good for fourth place and a spot in the A-Final for the event. Sofia Piantedosi continued swimming the long-distance events with the 1,650-yard Freestyle race (also known as the one-mile race). Piantedosi dropped 1:03.68 in the event and swam a season-best time of 23:58.76 to conclude the prelims session of day three.
Sunday's finals started for the Golden Bears with a 50-yard Backstroke race from Julia Remiszewski, who swam a time of 31.56 and earned fourteenth place overall in the event. Then, it was time for the 200-yard Breaststroke race for the now current meet record holder, Ella Smith. Smith would swim a time of 2:25.35 and win the 200-yard Breaststroke race. That was Smith's third individual race win, which is the most you can have in the LEC Championship meet. It was Olivia Emanuele's turn next. The 200-yard Butterfly saw Emanuele drop another 4.83 seconds from Emanuele's season-best time. Emanuele's season-best time of 2:34.18 would place Emanuele seventh in the event. Caitlin Guntly would continue the great day of swimming for the Golden Bears with another season-best time in the 100-yard IM. In fact, Guntly would drop enough time to earn a 1:03.23, a new WNE team record. Guntly's second individual team record of the meet. The 400-yard Freestyle Relay concluded the meet for the teams. The Golden Bears had to end the meet in spectacular fashion. They would race from the outside lane and would grab fifth in the event with yet another WNE team record. The relay team of Alexa Adams, Olivia Emanuele, Caitlin Guntly, and Ella Smith swam a time of 3:53.94 to earn that record.
After the meet was over, it was announced that the Golden Bears would conclude the meet in seventh place out of twelve teams. It was also announced that the LEC's Swimmer of the Year award was won by WNE's Ella Smith. That is the first time a WNE swimmer has won the LEC Swimmer of the Year Award.
Up Next:
The Golden Bears 2024-25 season ends at the LEC Championships, with WNE earning 7th place in the championship meet.
