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
- Live Results
- Livestream: NEC Front Row
Six events were contested on night one from Spire Institute at the Northeast Conference Championships. One of the highlights of the evening was Long Island’s men’s 800 freestyle relay clipping the NEC Championships meet record by just over eight tenths of a second in 6:35.84.
The relay team of Mario Poulsen (1:38.03), Leandre Renault (1:39.84), Finn Drysdale (1:38.67), and Emilio Garcia (1:38.47) combined in a winning effort of 6:35.01, a near eight-second win over runner-ups Le Moyne (6:42.91). That time lowered the 2023 record formerly held by Howard in 6:35.84. Throughout the race, it was clear that LIU were the favorites, with all four of their swimmers turning in sub-1:40 efforts. Le Moyne’s anchor leg, Mikey White Jr., was the only other competitor in the field under 1:40 (1:39.69).
Opening up the day, Howard’s men’s 200 medley relay topped a tightly contested field in 1:29.12, just ahead of Le Moyne (1:29.12), Long Island (1:29.83), and Wagner (1:30.07). Kaleb James opened this relay for Howard as the only backstroker under 23 seconds in 22.61. Following James was Ayrton Moncur in 24.52, which ended up being the slowest breaststroke split in the field, putting the Bison in 3rd at the halfway mark. Taj Benton would help get Howard back into the driver’s seat with a 21.78 fly leg to put them one hundredth of a second ahead of LIU, with the anchor left to swim. Mason Green (20.21) took over and held off a charging LIU anchor from Justin Enser (20.12) to give the Bison a meet-opening victory.
In the women’s 200 medley, Howard would take the win in a less decisive time of 1:41.34; Chanice Posada(24.90), Rhanishka Gibbs (29.18), Alyssa Napier (24.11), and Gabrielle Vickles (23.15) made quick work of the field, touching ahead of runners-up Central Connecticut in 1:43.05.
On the men’s 1-meter board, the top four were separated by 11 points, with Le Moyne’s Louie Allison finishing ahead of three Howard divers in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th to claim NEC gold in 262.35. Just over two points behind him was Trevor Swell at 260.15.
Kaitlyn Carroll led a sweep of the podium for CCSU on the women’s 3-meter board, topping the final scores in 262.65. Behind her were Jewelle Maziarz and Rachel Giroux in 258.70 and 235.50, respectively.
Closing out night one was the women’s 800 free relay, as Central Connecticut was untouchable in their more than six second win in 7:23.65 as Megan Dunnigan (1:49.81), Gabby Spaciano (1:52.01), Addison Kenny (1:50.51), and Maggie Rutledge (1:51.32) took early control of this race and never let up, coming up just over a second short of the NEC Meet record of 7:22.49 from Wagner in 2023.
Team Standings After Day 1:
Women:
- Central Connecticut- 141
- Howard- 107
- Le Moyne- 77
- Wagner- 64
- Saint Francis- 58
- Stonehill- 54
- Long Island- 54
Men:
- Howard- 142
- Le Moyne- 108
- Wagner- 90
- Long Island- 72
