WELLESLEY, Mass. – The Eastern Connecticut State University men's and women's swim team won two individual events and two relays and the Warriors earned a total of 27 all-conference honors on the first day of swimming competition at the 2026 Little East Conference Women's & Men's Swimming and Diving Championships Friday at the Boston Sports Institute.

After 20 events (ten men, ten women)  in the meet's four-day, 50-event (25 men, 25 women) competition which runs through Sunday, the Eastern women (308.5 points) led the 11-team women's championship by 114 ½ points over Bridgewater State University (194), with defending champion Keene State College third (181). The Eastern women won their first LEC title two years ago and placed third last year behind Keene State and Bridgewater State.

Competition in the men's and women's 1 and 3 meter diving kicked off the championships Thursday evening at Babson College (Eastern does not sponsor diving as part of its swimming program).

The defending champion Eastern men – who lost four key swimmers from the team which won its first title last year with an 80.5 point victory over runner-up Maine Maritime Academy --  are in third place. The Warriors (264) are 27 points behind leader Bridgewater State and 18 shy of second place Maine Maritime.

The top three finishers in individual and relays are accorded All-Little East Conference recognition.

The Eastern women won one individual event and two relays and totalled All-LEC recognition a total of 14 times in six individual events and two relays. Senior Natasha Frisch (Mendota Heights, MN) earned All-LEC honors for the third time in the 50 breaststroke, winning the event for the second straight year. The top seed, Frisch was timed in 30.65 in the final, just off her own program record of 30.57 (an All-America pole vaulter, Frisch will defend her LEC indoor title in that event at Saturday's LEC Championships at Plymouth State University).

The Eastern women won both relays contested Friday, taking the 200 freestyle in an LEC Championship time of 1:40.17 and the 400 medley relay in 4:08.06. The 200 freestyle relay was just off the program record of 1:40.08 set 15 years ago. The 400 medley relay won the event for third consecutive season.

The women received a big boost from first-year swimmers Ashley Carvente (Norwalk), Rachel Mathews (West Hartford), Lauren Waitkus (Cheshire) and Jai-Lynn Wheeler (Stonington), who all earned All-LEC honors.  Carvente was second in the 100 butterfly (1:01.30) as the first freshman finisher; Mathews third as the first freshman in the 500 freestyle (5:32.45); Waitkus third overall and second freshman (behind Carvente) in the 100 butterfly (1:01.99); and Wheeler shared second place in the 50 freestyle (25.19).

Also swimming to All-LEC recognition was junior Cassandra Wentzell (Wallingford), who repeated all-conference honors in the 200 backstroke (2:13.84) with a third-place finish.

Five individuals and two relays earned All-LEC recognition for the men, who broke three program records in individual events and swam to one individual first.

Second-team transfer Boden Tito (Southington) won his third individual title in his third different event in two years by claiming the 200 individual medley (after last year's second-place finish) as the No. 1 seed in a program-record time of 1:56.46 (more than three seconds faster than his preliminary time).

Additional record-breakers were with second-place finishes were second-team transfer Eric Quiterio (Windsor) and first-year swimmer Spencer Bagtaz (Wilmington, MA).Quiterio repeated All-LEC honors with a record time of 51.49 in the 100 butterfly. Bagtaz was timed in 1:59.87 as the first freshman finisher in the 200 backstroke.

Senior Sam Hurlburt (Meriden) and  junior Ryan Jezek (Avon) repeated All-LEC recognition with second-place finishes in the 50 breaststroke (27.22) and 50 freestyle (21.45), respectively. Jezek's finals time was .01 off his program record set at last year's LEC Championships.

As last year's champions, the men's 400 medley relay (3:34.05) and 200 freestyle relay (1:27.24) placed second and third, respectively.

Action continues Saturday with 14 events (seven men, seven women) with preliminaries scheduled for 10 a.m. and finals for 6:30 p.m. Top seeds for the women Saturday are Carvente (400 IM), Jail-Lynn Wheeler (200 freestyle) and Frisch (100 breaststroke) while Tito is the men's top seed in the 400 IM as the defending champion. Frisch looks for her first 100 breaststroke title after previous finishes of third and second.