2025 NEC Fan Guide: Close Battles Loom For Both 2025 NEC Conference Crowns

2025 NEC Championships

• February 19-22, 2025
• Spire Institute — Geneva, Ohio 
• SCY (25 Yards)
• Start Times: prelims – 10 am ET/finals – 6 pm ET 
  • Day 1: finals only – 6 pm ET
• Defending Champions: 
  • Women: Central Connecticut State University (2x)
  • Men: Wagner (1x)
• Participating Teams: Central Connecticut, Howard, Le Moyne, LIU, Saint Francis (PA), Stonehill, Wagner
• Women’s Championship Central
• Men’s Championship Central
• Psych Sheet 
• Live Results
• Livestream: NEC Front Row

Schedule 

Wednesday, Feb. 19

• 200 medley relay 
• Women’s 3-meter diving
• Men’s 1-meter diving
• 800 freestyle relay 

Thursday, Feb. 20 

• 500 freestyle 
• 200 IM 
• 50 freestyle 
• Women’s 1-meter diving
• 200 freestyle relay 

Friday, Feb. 21

• 100 butterfly
• 400 IM 
• 200 freestyle
• 100 breaststroke
• 100 backstroke 
• Men’s 3-meter diving 
• 400 medley relay 

Saturday, Feb. 22

• 1650 freestyle
• 200 backstroke 
• 100 freestyle 
• 200 breaststroke
• 200 butterfly 
• 400 freestyle relay 

2024 Final Standings: 

Women:

1. Central Connecticut — 1473.5
2. Howard — 1157
3. Wagner — 1098.5
4. Saint Francis (PA) — 1094.5
5. Sacred Heart — 985
6. Long Island University — 799
7. Stonehill — 383.5
8. Merrimack — 312
9. Le Moyne — 261

Men: 

1. Wagner — 884.5
2. Howard — 833.5
3. Long Island University — 614
4. Le Moyne — 426

The CCSU women won the 2024 NEC team title by a comfortable margin of 316.5 points, earning back-to-back trophies. On the men’s side of the meet, Wagner won a close race against Howard, 884.5 to 833.5, with a strong performance on the final day of the meet. Their win marked Wagner’s first NEC Championship in program history. 

The NEC hasn’t been immune to the conference realignment. Merrimack and Sacred Heart have both departed for the MAAC, leaving seven teams on the women’s side of the conference. 

Swimmers To Watch: 

Women: 

Zuzu Nwaeze — Junior, Howard 

Zuzu Nwaeze has made her mark on the NEC Championships during her first two seasons. As a freshman, she was named the NEC Championships Female Rookie of the Meet and the Women’s Newcomer of the Year. Last year, she was the Co-Outstanding Female Swimmer of the NEC Championships after she won the 50 free, and the 200 free, helped Howard win the 200 freestyle relay, and placed 4th in the 200 butterfly. Her 50 freestyle winning time of 22.74 marked an NEC Championship meet record. 

Nwaeze has positioned herself to have a similarly impactful meet in her junior season. She owns the fastest 50 and 100 freestyle times in the NEC this season after clocking 23.14/50.08. Her 100 freestyle time is just two-hundredths from her lifetime best; she didn’t race the event individually at last year’s NEC Championships, opting instead for the 200 fly. She’s 6th in the NEC in the 200 fly this season (2:08.23) and could go for the same lineup this year, but she looks like the gold-medal favorite in both sprint events before the meet begins. She’s third in the conference in the 200 freestyle (1:53.56) as she sets up to defend her title, though could opt for the 100 fly, where she leads the conference this season after clocking 54.99. And, in a show of her range, she also ranks 5th in the 500 freestyle this season. 

Abbey Keane — Fifth-year, CCSU 

Distance freestyler Abbey Keane heads into her last NEC Championships aiming to defend her 500 and 1650 freestyle titles. There’s a three-peat on the line for her in the 1650 freestyle; she dominated the race last season, winning by more than 15 seconds. But Keane could have her work cut out for her this season. At least, she’s got significant ground to make up on the psych sheets, she’s 6th in the NEC in the 500 free and 3rd in the 1650 freestyle after hitting season-bests of 5:08.18/17:42.51. 

Her lifetime bests of 4:54.57/16:54.17 would top the conference’s season-bests in both events this season, which are led by Saint Francis’ Aurem Pifarre Planes. Neither the Swimulator nor SwimCloud’s meet simulator project CCSU win this year’s title and if they want to defy the projections, they need their swimmers, especially proven conference champions like Keane, to swim up from their seeds. 

Rebekka Luoto — Sophomore, Wagner 

As a freshman, Luoto, a breaststroker from Finland, swept the breaststroke events. For her efforts, she split the Co-Outstanding Swimmer of the Meet award with Nwaeze and earned Rookie of the NEC Championships. 

Luoto has continued to improve in her sophomore year, swimming lifetime bests in the 200 breaststroke (2:15.30) and 200 IM (2:02.53) at the Harold Anderson Invitational that placed her at the top of the NEC this season. Add in her season-best of 1:01.09 in the 100 breaststroke, and Luoto heads into the conference championships ranked 1st in the three events. As she won both the 100 and 200 breaststroke last season by over a second, Luoto was the favorite to repeat in those events, but after racing the 500 freestyle last season, her 200 IM best is faster than last season’s winning time, making Luoto a threat to run away with the title and sweep her three individual events. 

Men:

Emilio Garcia — Junior, LIU 

Junior Emilio Garcia is set to once again be a factor in the men’s sprint events at the NEC Championships. As a sophomore, he won the NEC titles in the 100 and 200 freestyle. He swam lifetime bests in both events at the championships, though they both came from leading off relays as he clocked 44.79/1:38.60 on the 400 and 800 freestyle relays. 

Garcia finished 7th in the 50 freestyle at the 2024 NEC Championships but after swimming a lifetime best 20.59 at the ECAC Winter Championships, he has developed into a three-event podium threat this season. His 50 freestyle time ranks him second in the conference this season, while he leads the 100 freestyle with a 45.35. LIU owns the top two seeds in both events, courtesy of Garcia and his teammate Alejandro Pascual del Cid. As he sets up for a title defense, Garcia also ranks 2nd in the 200 free this season with a season-best of 1:41.08. 

LIU still needs a few key pieces to join Howard and Wagner in a fight for the conference title, but their depth in the sprint freestyles helps them pick up valuable points in the relay events as well. 

Tristan Stevens — Fifth-Year, Howard

Between Garcia, Pascual del Cid, and Finn Drysdale, LIU owns the top time in all the individual freestyle events on offer at the NEC Championships. However, it’s Howard who’s jetted out in front in the backstroke events, thanks to fifth-year Tristan Stevens. The Howard men’s MVP last season, Stevens has put himself in line to claim his first individual conference title this season. After placing 2nd/5th in the 100/200 backstroke at the 2024 NEC Championships, Stevens has set the bar in the conference this season. He leads the 100 and 200 backstroke season rankings after putting up a 48. And a lifetime best 1:47.66 in the 200 back.  

Stevens is the only returning podium-finisher in the 100 backstroke this season and is the only man to have broken 50 seconds in the event this season. He’s got a similar lead in the 200 back, as he’s almost two seconds ahead of Nikko Carillo’s 1:49.48 from midseason. 

Adrian Andres Moreno — Wagner

There’s a battle for the team title brewing between Wagner and Howard. And while Howard’s Stevens controls the backstroke events, Adrian Andres Moreno aims to defend his breaststroke sweep from last year and put major points on the board for Wagner. Andres Moreno owns lifetime bests of 54.34/1:59.54 in his primary events. This season, he’s been as fast as 55.04/2:01.52, both of which lead the conference. 

He’s also a factor in the 400 IM, where he owns a lifetime best of 4:05.36 and took 5th last year. 

Showdowns: 

Women: 

400 IM — Last season, CCSU sophomore Gabi Wroblewski won this event by over four seconds with a 4:24.38. The race seems like it will be a lot closer this season, as Saint Francis junior Sara Turner, the 2024 silver medalist, owns the NEC’s fastest time with the lifetime best 4:25.71 she swam at midseason. Wroblewski has been quieter this season and sits 5th after a 4:37.11 at a dual meet. Meanwhile, LIU has made a strong push in the event this season, with fifth-year Laura Marin sitting just behind Turner after swimming a lifetime-best 4:25.86 at midseason. Her teammate and returning ‘A’ finalist Lara Wielkiewicz ranks 3rd with a 4:30.97, about a half-second from her lifetime best. Wagner’s Brooke Woolfe also looks to move up from her 7th-place finish last season after swimming a lifetime best at midseason (4:34.34). 

200 backstroke — With only three ‘A’ finalists from the 2024 NEC Championships returning, the door is wide open in the women’s 200 backstroke. After winning last year’s ‘B’ final, Howard’s Chanice Posada owns the fastest time in the conference this season with a season-best 2:03.08. She’s more than a second clear of last year’s runner-up, Sophie Milhomens (2:04.57) but the CCSU sophomore owns a lifetime best of 2:00.65 and will also have her eyes on the title. The other returning ‘A’ finalists are Saint Francis’ Bridget Kurtzwell and Stonehill’s Sydney Stockwell. Meanwhile 2024 ‘B’ finalist Inde Patterson and ‘C’ finalists Summer Mckoy and Kia Moerk also rank in the top five this season and look to join Posada and vault into the ‘A’ final.

200 freestyle — Saint Francis’ Pifarre Planes and Wagner’s Mia Goodale have shown their cards in the 200 freestyle early this season, swimming lifetime bests of 1:52.89 and 1:53.14 at their respective midseason invites. They are the top two swimmers in the conference, as Pifarre Planes is the only swimmer sub-1:53 ahead of a quartet of 1:53s. However, Nwaeze is one of those 1:53s (1:53.56) and won last year’s title by over a second, swimming 1:48.08. 

The only swimmer at the top of the women’s 200 freestyle to have shown their cards this season is Pifarre Planes, who swam a lifetime best 1:52.89 at the Liberty Invite. But last year, Nwaeze earned the conference title in 1:48.08 and Wagner’s Olivia Bishop joined her under 1:50 with a 1:49.92 for silver. This suggests that we’re going to see dramatic drops during this event at NECs; while Bishop has graduated, Nwaeze sits 3rd with a season-best 1:53.56 and based on her lifetime best, has plenty of room to move up. 

Men: 

100 breaststroke — Andres Moreno aims to repeat as the NEC champion in this event. To do so, he’ll go head-to-head with Howard’s Darin Johnson again, who finished 2nd in this event last year and won it the year before. Their lifetime bests are within two-tenths of each other, as Andres Moreno’s been 54.34 and Johnson’s 54.53. They are the only two swimmers in the field this year that broke 55 seconds at last year’s championships and it looks like the race for gold will once again come down to them. LIU’s top breaststroker Marcleo Chauvet owns a season-best of 56.21 and looks to get in on the action, though the 200 breaststroke is his stronger event. 

200 butterfly — The last individual race of the meet could come down to the touch, as Wagner’s Carrillo and Le Moyne’s Alex Pilieci own season-bests of 1:50.37 and 1:50.55, respectively. Carrillo clocked a lifetime best 1:50.12 last season to earn silver behind the since-graduated Benny Karlsson. Meanwhile, Piileci is a freshman from Canada and has made quick work of adjusting to yards in this event—he could have a big drop once he’s tapered for his debut conference championships.   

200 IM — Jasu Ovaskainen, has since transferred out of the NEC after winning three events in his freshman season, this being one of them. His departure was a blow for Wagner, but in this event at least, they’ve rebounded well as Austrian freshman Florian Schumich leads the conference with a 1:52.51. It took a 1:48.11 to win last year, and the silver and bronze medallists, Dani Chocano Fernandez (1:49.73) and Carrillo (1:51.83) are lurking right behind Schumich. Chocano Fernandez owns a season-best of 1:52.73 while Carrillo’s been 1:52.88, setting up a great race between these three for the title. Le Moyne freshman Mikey White ranks fourth in the conference with his lifetime best of 1:53.33 from midseason and could surprise too. 

SwimSwam Picks (Top 3): 

Women:

1. Saint Francis (PA) 
2. Howard
3. CCSU

The Saint Francis women swam very well during the regular season and thus, the championship projects predict the team will win its first conference title since 2013 by a comfortable margin. These same projections have the two-time defending champions CCSU placing 4th, but given that the team has plenty of room to move up from their seeds, it seems like they’ll be much more involved in the action than projected. The question is by how much, and whether the swimmers they’re bumping out of final spots are from the teams projected to finish ahead of them—Saint Francis, Howard, and Wagner. 

While it seems likely they will find their way onto the podium in the team race, a lot would need to swing in their favor for them to disrupt Saint Francis and Howard, who are both holding strong at 1st and 2nd place. 

Men: 

1. Wagner
2. Howard
3. LIU

Another close battle looms between Wagner and Howard. The two teams are the owners of the last two conference titles, with Wagner lifting the trophy in 2024 and Howard doing so in 2023. Last year, Howard held the lead until the final day of the championships, when Wagner made its move. Based on team strengths, it looks like Wagner will use that same strategy again this year, setting up for a nail-biting final day. Though Wagner lost 3x event champion Ovaskien, they’ve rebounded well with strong performances from newcomers and returners. We’re going with them to edge out Howard for the title, though the Bison certainly have the talent to win their second conference championship in three years.