SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (October 19, 2026) – Three Golden Bears have earned honors this week as Golden Bear Athletes of the Week following outstanding performances over the weekend at respective events. Women's cross country's Caitlin Reilly, men's golf's Timothy Spitz, and women's swimming's Alexandra Watroba have all collected honors this week.

Reilly had an impressive 6K run on her home course this weekend, competing in the Western New England Golden Bear Invitational. The run took Reilly 24:29.2, putting her in 14^th place overall in the event. The Longmeadow, Massachusetts, native knocked off well over a minute of her previous best time for the season, which came at the Keene State Invitational (25:40.3), also surpassing her previous overall 6K best, which came last season at the Conference of New England (CNE) Championships (24:55.2). Reilly will look to beat out her personal best at next weekend's CNE Championship event, which will take place on Saturday, October 31 at Keney Park in Hartford, Connecticut, with the women's race set for 12:00 PM and the men's at 1:00 PM. 

Spitz had another impressive outing in his final rounds of the fall season at the New England Intercollegiate Golf Association (NEIGA) Championship. Spitz finished tied for sixth place overall out of 108 total golfers at the event over the weekend. The Pittsford, New York, native opened the first round with a score of 75, just three strokes over par. Spitz shot even through the opening 14 holes, picking up one birdie and one bogey over those 14, shooting a 36 across the opening nine, before shooting three strokes over par over his last four holes to shoot a 39, finishing with a 75. Spitz was tied for ninth place overall after day one and improved his placement by three spots on day two after shooting a 74 overall, two strokes over par. Spitz played a consistent par game on Sunday, picking up 16 pars and two bogeys for the round to come in two strokes over par and tie for sixth place overall at the event. Spitz and the Golden Bears ended their season with the final round at the NEIGA Championships this past Sunday and will return to the course in the spring. 

Watroba was Western New England's top swimmer in last Friday night's University of Saint Joseph (USJ) Blue Jay Pentathlon. Watroba opened the night taking fifth place overall out of 68 swimmers in the 50-yard butterfly event, finishing the race in 29.68 seconds. Watroba then took seventh place for the Golden Bears in the 50-yard backstroke event, touching the wall in 31.35 seconds. The WNE junior continued to impress, taking fifth out of 75 swimmers in the 50-yard breaststroke, coming in with a time of 36.35 seconds. Watroba was seventh overall in the 50-yard freestyle event, picking up a time of 27.41, tops among Golden Bears in the race. To close out the night, the West Springfield, Massachusetts, native rounded out with a second-place finish in the 100-yard IM event, finishing in 1:07.05. After all results were tallied at the end of the meet, Watroba recorded the second-best combined time across the five events to earn medalist honors. Watroba and the Western New England women's swimming team will be back in action this coming Friday, October 23 at Simmons University for a 6:00 PM meet.