By Madeline Folsom on SwimSwam
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 NEC Championships Preview Live Results Livestream: NEC Front Row Recaps Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3Complete Meet Results
The 2026 NEC Championships wrapped up on Friday, and the Howard Bison swept the meet with the men winning by almost 100 points over Wagner and the women winning by 20 points over Central Connecticut State.
The Bison women disrupted CCSU’s three-meet win streak, preventing a four-peat, and they picked up their first ever NEC title in the process. The Howard men won their 2nd straight NEC title.
Final Scores
Women Men Howard University — 856 Central Connecticut State — 837 Wagner College — 407 Saint Francis — 349 Long Island University — 334 Stonehill — 299 Le Moyne College — 275 Howard — 859 Wagner College — 787 Le Moyne College — 684.5 Long Island University — 576Women’s Meet Recap
The Howard women won one individual and one relay event on the final night of the NEC Championships.
Zuilda Nwaeze was their only individual event champion, taking the top spot in the women’s 100 freestyle in 50.24. This was about a second off her lifetime best time of 49.38 from last year’s CSCAA Invite in March. She added this gold to her 50 free title (22.82) from earlier in the meet. She came in just ahead of teammate Zenya Posada’s 50.50 in 2nd.
Howard also won the 400 freestyle relay with Posada (50.81), Alyssa Napier (50.44), Gabrielle Vickles (51.09), and Zuilda Nwaeze (50.11) swimming a new NEC Meet Record time of 3:22.45. They took down Wagner’s 2024 Meet Record of 3:22.96.
Three of the other four individual event wins went to Central Connecticut who made a valiant effort to catch Howard on the last night. They started with a win in the 1650 free courtesy of junior Maggie Rutledge‘s 17:03.45. She came in almost 40 seconds ahead of the rest of the field and dropped a little more than five seconds from her previous best of 17:08.50 from this meet last year.
Sophie Milhomens, another junior, led a CCSU top three in the 200 backstroke with her winning time of 1:59.14. This marked her first time under 2:00 in the event as she dropped from the 2:00.65 she swam in February of 2024. Megan Dunnigan finished 2nd in 1:59.54, also marking her first time under 2:00 and a near two second drop from the 2:01.13 mark she set in February of 2024. Finally freshman Addison Kenney finished 3rd in 2:01.25.
Another junior, Grace Young, won the women’s 200 breaststroke, CCSU’s final event win of the meet, in 2:19.74. She was a little more than half-a-second ahead of Madeleine O’Dea‘s 2:20.40 for Le Moyne in 2nd.
The final individual event of the meet, the women’s 200 fly, was won by Wagner’s Gaya Savran, who touched in 2:03.11, winning by almost two seconds over Sara Turner, who swam 2:05.06 for Saint Francis.
Men’s Meet Recap
The Howard men did not win a single event on the final night of the meet, including the 400 freestyle relay. They also didn’t have any individual top-three finishes.
They picked up a 3rd place finish in the men’s 400 freestyle relay, swimming 3:00.54 with the team of Kaleb James (45.79), Ibrahima Diouf (45.73), Taj Benton (44.72), and Mason Green (44.30).
LIU’s ‘A’ relay of Mario Poulsen (45.16), Renault Leandre (44.12), Emilio Garcia (43.86), and Polat Tasbasi (43.49) swam the top time and meet record of 2:56.63. They took a little over a second off Howard’s 2023 Meet Record of 2:57.66.
There were a few other meet records from the session, both from LIU as well. LIU’s Finn Drysdale won the men’s 1650 freestyle in 15:35.80, taking two seconds off his 2025 meet record time of 15:37.88 and winning the event by almost 40 seconds over Wagner’s Ben McLaughlin, who swam 16:12.98.
In the 200 breaststroke, LIU junior Polat Tasbasi swam 1:57.34 for the win, taking more than a second off Fu Kang Wong‘s 2021 record time of 1:58.98. He was about four tenths off his lifetime best of 1:56.90 from the Summit League Championships in February 2024 when he swam for Lindenwood University before the program was cut following that season.
LIU also picked up the win in the men’s 100 freestyle with a tie between freshman Mario Poulsen and senior Emilio Garcia in 44.49. They also finished 3rd with Leandre Renault’s 44.61.
The final two events, the men’s 200 backstroke and the men’s 200 fly, went to Wagner’s Nikko Carrillo. He swam the 200 backstroke in 1:47.10, four tenths faster than his previous lifetime best of 1:47.44. In the 200 fly, he was 1:48.50, only two tenths off his previous lifetime best of 1:48.23 from this meet last year.
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