2026 NEC Championships
- February 17-20, 2026
- Spire Institute, Geneva, OH
- 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 (3x)
- Men: Howard (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
Tuesday, Feb. 17
- 200 Medley Relay
- Women’s 3-meter Diving
- Men’s 1-meter Diving
- 800 Freestyle Relay
Wednesday, Feb. 18
- 500 Freestyle
- 200 IM
- 50 Freestyle
- Men’s 3-meter Diving
- 200 Freestyle Relay
Thursday, Feb. 19
- 100 Butterfly
- 400 IM
- 200 Freestyle
- 100 Breaststroke
- 100 Backstroke
- Women’s 1-meter Diving
- 400 Medley Relay
Friday, Feb. 20
- 1650 Freestyle
- 200 Backstroke
- 100 Freestyle
- 200 Breaststroke
- 200 Butterfly
- 400 Freestyle Relay
2025 Final Standings:
Women:
- Central Connecticut State – 726.5
- Howard – 683.5
- Saint Francis (PA) – 579.5
- Wagner – 540
- Long Island University – 454
- Stonehill – 191.5
- Le Moyne – 179
Men:
- Howard – 883
- Wagner – 876
- Long Island University – 566
- Le Moyne – 552
The CCSU women earned their 3rd straight Northeast Conference title last season by outlasting Howard by 43 points, while the top two men’s teams were separated by just seven points, with Howard earning the 2025 crown despite a late meet charge from Wagner.
Swimmers to Watch:
Women:
Zuzu Nwaeze – Senior, Howard
Zuzu Nwaeze was the first mention on this same list last season, and for good reason; she went perfect on the meet, winning all three sprint freestyle races, and helping lead four Howard relays to first-place finishes. She will likely swim the same lineup this season, with the hope that Howard will be the team to end the winning streak put on by CCSU.
Nwaeze has positioned herself as the conference leader in the 50 free (23.02), 100 free (50.31), and the 200 free (1:50.63) this season, with her tightest lead being in the 200 free, sitting just .15 ahead of Wagner’s Mia Goodale. Her 50 free time is more than half a second faster than anyone else in the conference, and she was nearly a full second quicker at NEC’s last season when she won the 50 free in 22.65, and led off the 200 free relay even better in 22.57. Nwaeze was unstoppable in the 100 free last season, winning by over a second in 49.71. She is undoubtedly the favorite to repeat in those races, which would make her an eight-time NEC conference champion in her career.
Sara Turner – Senior, Saint Francis (PA)
Sara Turner leads the 200 IM and 400 IM heading into the NEC Championships, with the latter by a wide margin. Turner was a finalist in three events each of the last three years, earning a 2nd-place finish at each meet. In 2024 and 2025, Turner finished runner-up in the 400 IM, with her best time coming in 2025 in 4:23.90. She also placed 3rd in both the 200 fly and 200 IM last season. After swimming the same lineup at each of the last four NEC Championships, it is likely that Turner will stick to this lineup for 2026.
Turner is the top seed in the 400 IM by almost seven seconds, an event where three of the top four finishers, aside from the winner (Laura Marin of LIU who has since graduated), will very likely be competing to crown a new champion, and with two years of playing second fiddle in the event, Turner enters as the one to beat. Her likely third event, the 200 fly, should be a tighter contest, as she owns the 4th fastest time in the conference this season in 2:06.38, but holds an intriguing best time of 2:02.97, a time she went to place 2nd in the event in 2023. The potential for the 200 breast to be the 3rd event is also a possibility, as she swam the 3rd-fastest time in the conference this season at 2:22.71. Turner has just missed the peak of the mountaintop over her career with Saint Francis, and this season looks to finally get her over that hump.
Gaya Savran – Sophomore, Wagner
Gaya Savran, the Italian butterfly talent from Wagner, will look to defend her 200 butterfly crown from a season ago, and potentially add one or two more to her 2026 total. She controls her own destiny in the 200 fly, holding the top time in the conference by over two seconds (2:04.07), while still being nearly three seconds off of her best from when she earned her first NEC title (2:01.30). With the runner up (Marin) gone, and Sara Turner (3rd in 2025) as the next closest finisher to her, Savran on paper should be able to repeat in the event this year.
The 100 fly is a much tighter situation: having finished 3rd last season in 55.61 and having already bettered that time this season with her conference-leading 55.50 at the Harold Anderson Invitational, Savran still has some work to do if she hopes to stand atop the podium. Savran, and the Howard duo of Alyssa Napier an Chanice Posada (reigning NEC Champion in 54.02) all enter the 2026 championships separated by 19 hundredths, but the possibility of a major drop is there, as Savran lowered her best time by almost a second and a half to finish 3rd last season, and if she were to make a similar drop again, the 100 fly could be an exciting finish.
Men:
Finn Drysdale, Sophomore, LIU
Finn Drysdale earned three wins as a freshman at last season’s NEC Championships and appears to be in even better form this season heading into these championships. As a freshman, Drysdale picked up wins in the 200 free, 500 free, and 1650 free, swimming to new conference meet records in the 500 and 1650. And as a sophomore, Drysdale is either right on or faster than those winning times from a season ago. With his 1650 free already 13 seconds better (15:24.37), and his 200 free (1:39.13), and his 500 free (4:24.79) both sitting within a second of those winning efforts from 2025.
This is not to say that all of these events will be runaway wins, as in the 200 free, Drysdale holds the 2nd-fastest time in the NEC behind his teammate Mario Rodriguez Poulsen, who is a threat in a number of events in his own right. The question for Drysdale in the 500 free and 1650 free will not necessarily focus on whether he will win, but how fast he goes.
He has already put such a gap of time between himself and the rest of the conference that the difference almost seems insurmountable, and his own meet records will most definitely be on watch once again.
Florian Schumich – Sophomore, Wagner
Florian Schumich came away with three top-three finishes at this meet a season ago, with his top placement coming in the 400 IM, where he touched a quarter of a second away from winning as a freshman (3:58.14). In addition to that close loss, he was 3rd in both the 200 IM (1:51.08) and 200 back (1:49.49). Here in 2026, he is the top performer in the conference this season in both IM races and 2nd to Le Moyne’s Owen Daniels in the 200 back.
Schumich’s fastest 200 back and 400 IM came at last season’s NEC championships, but he did crack that 1:51 barrier in the 200 IM this season to set a new best time at 1:50.72, a time that would have won the event in 2025. He is currently the only NEC swimmer this season to swim under 1:53 in the 200 IM and under 4:04 in the 400 IM, with his season best of 4:01.47, giving him a solid leg up heading into these championships. The key race to watch will be the 200 back, with Daniels, the Le Moyne freshman, having logged a 1:50.72 this season. Schumich will likely need to return to his sub 1:50 form in order to secure that win for Wagner.
Mason Green – Junior, Howard
Mason Green was a key piece to Howard’s success at this meet last season. Winning the 100 fly (47.29), finishing 2nd in the 200 fly (1:49.19), and anchoring a pair of winning Bison relays that helped propel the Howard men to the top of the NEC. His 100 fly win was dominant, touching over a second ahead of the field, and stopping the clock just over three tenths shy of the NEC meet record. This season, he has already posted the fastest time in the conference at 48.07, one of just two swimmers under 49, alongside his teammate Taj Benton (48.67).
The impact that Green brings in both relays and individual events is key; he finished 2nd in the 200 fly last season, and currently sits just over a quarter of a second (1:50.24) off of the top time this season set by his teammate Solomon Goins in 1:50.24. The 200 fly is not the deepest event in the NEC, which creates a key opportunity for Green to take advantage of the limited spots and potentially double up on event wins.
Showdowns:
Women:
100 Butterfly – We’ve already mentioned that Savran will look to reach the wall first, but both Alyssa Napier and Chanice Posada both make strong cases to also take the top spot. Posada won this event last year as one of two finishers under 55 seconds in 54.02. This season, though, she has only been as fast as 55.56 at the H2ounds Invitational, the same meet that Posada clocked her 55.69. That time for Savran was an outlier in a rather unflattering year of performances in this race, but her noticeable time drops in this event in each of the last two seasons suggest that another one may be in store. Also in the conversation is Wagner’s Lovisa Ramsten, who finished 9th in this event last year (56.77), and has been as fast as 56.79, she too had a massive lifetime best in this race at this meet last year, and if she were to pull it off again, could scramble up the top three of this race.
200 Breaststroke – The top three performers this season all sit within six tenths of each other; Taylor Weth (Saint Francis, 2:22.18), Brooke Woolfe (Wagner, 2:22.44), and Sara Turner (Saint Francis, 2:22.71) all have firmly put themselves in contention (pending Turner swimming this event over the 200 fly). Among the top three, Woolfe holds the fastest career best in 2:21.35 from this meet last year, where Weth boasts a lifetime best of 2:21.81. Neither of which are the highest placing returner from the championship final of this event a year ago. That honor goes to Wagner senior Lia Vendel, who finished 3rd last year in 2:20.29. Vendel has been as fast as 2:24.22 this season, but has shown that she has the speed that makes her a definite pre-meet contender. Central Connecticut’s Grace Young finished 9th in 2:22.09 in this race last season, a time that would have placed 7th, and that would lead the conference this season, but she has only gone as fast as 2:25.11 this year. The top of this race is close, and with plenty of returning finalists from 2025, this will be one of the races to bookmark.
50 Freestyle – This race primarily highlights the depth of the NEC in this event. Zuzu Nwaeze leads the conference at 23.02, more than half a second faster than the rest of the conference; the next seven competitors are separated by four-tenths and are all under 24 seconds. Last season’s championships saw 10 women under 24 seconds in the 50 free between the championship and consolation finals. A sidenote to this race will be the number of Howard swimmers, as last season, the championship final was made up of five Bison swimmers, while this season, six of the top eight represent Howard, with Nwaeze, Gabrielle Vickles (23.59), and Jasmine Morgan (23.62) entering as the top three for Howard.
Men:
200 Free – The Battle for the 200 free will likely be battled out between three Long Island swimmers: Finn Drysdale, Leandre Renault, and Mario Rodriguez Poulson. We mentioned the reigning champion in Drysdale, who holds the second-fastest time in the conference this season at 1:39.13, but at the same meet, Drysdale went that time; Rodriguez Poulson, who holds the fastest 50 and 100 free times this season, was even faster in 1:38.64. Drysdale’s time from last season still would have topped that, but an interesting addition to the mix nonetheless. Renault enters with a time of 1:39.56 as the leadoff leg of the 800 free relay at the ECAC Winter Championships, good enough for the 3rd fastest in the NEC this year. Returning ‘A’ finalists from last season include Wagner’s Ruben Van Gool (4th in 2025, 1:40.71), Howard’s Darien Williams (5th in 2025, 1:40.90), and Le Moyne’s Mikey White (7th in 2025, 1:41.88).
100 Breast – Two-time NEC Champion Adrian Andres Moreno transferred out of Wagner prior to the 2025-26 season, meaning a new champion will be crowned for the first time since 2024. And the pre-meet favorite is Long Island’s Polat Tasbasi, who previously competed for Lindenwood and McKendree University and will make his first appearance at the NEC Championships. He enters with a time that already tops the NEC meet record of 53.63, set by Andres Moreno last season. Tasbasi blasted a lifetime best of 53.24 at the ECAC Winter Championships, which has now slotted him in over a second faster than anyone in the NEC in 2026. The next closest competitor in Le Moyne’s Lucas Clay, who enters with a season and lifetime best of 54.38 from the Magnus Cup Invitational in November.
100 Backstroke – The men’s 100 back is led by Wagner’s Nikko Carillo, who sits atop the conference in 48.89 from his relay leadoff in a three-team meet with Iona and Sacred Heart in October. Behind him is his teammate, Senan Noonan in 50.57, who leads a trio of swimmers under 51 seconds in Howard’s Kaleb James (50.87), and LIU’s Martin Beitveit (50.94). This event last season was won by Howard’s Tristan Stevens in 48.38, with the next two swimmers just squeaking under the 51-second mark. This season, it looks like we will see multiple swimmers under that barrier, all vying to finish high on the podium. Le Moyne’s Owen Daniels boasts the 6th fastest time this season in 51.07, but also holds the fastest 200 back time, showing a potential outside threat to the middle of the pool. Howard’s Adam Diaz was 3rd in this event last year with a time of 50.98; this season, he enters as the 7th-fastest performer for 2026.
SwimSwam Picks (Top 3):
Women:
- Howard
- Wagner
- Central Connecticut St.
Howard’s performance throughout the season and the depth they show in a number of events are enough to set themselves apart, though the projection has Central Connecticut finishing 3rd, and last year they were projected to finish 4th, showing it is too early to count them out of contending for a 4th straight NEC title. Saint Francis and Long Island each hold strong individual performers, but are missing the relay firepower of these top three.
Men:
- Wagner
- Howard
- LIU
We are projecting another tight NEC battle between Wagner and Howard; it is the depth of Wagner that shines through the brightest. There is also a chance that Long Island contends through individual success and high podium finishes, but the top to bottom build of this Wagner team favors them in a championship format, even if not many 1st place finishes are recorded.
