WELLESLEY, Mass. – The Eastern Connecticut State University women's swim team won both relays and one individual event and picked up a bundle of points by taking four of the top seven spots in the 200 freestyle Saturday that strengthened its hold on first place after 36 events at the 2026 Little East Conference Women's Swimming & Diving Championship at the Boston Sports Institute.

Leading by 114.5 points after the first 18 events through Friday, Eastern nearly doubled its lead to 211.5 points Saturday over Bridgewater State University in its quest for a second LEC title in three years. The Warriors have totalled 605.5 points, with Bridgewater State at 394 and defending champion Keene State College at 354. Eleven teams are competing in the women's field.

Men's and women's competition concludes Sunday with preliminaries getting underway at 10 a.m. and finals at 5:30 p.m.

The Eastern men, who won their first title a year ago but lost 24 All-LEC awards from last year's meet, strengthened their hold on third place in the six-team field Saturday.  Showing a 24-point advantage over fourth-place Husson after 18 events Friday, the Eastern men improved that margin to 64 points over Husson after Saturday's action but fell 64 points behind Maine Maritime Academy in their quest for second place. Bridgewater State leads the men's competition with 606 points, with Maine Maritime (second to Eastern last year) at 583.5 and Eastern at 519.5.

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

For women, Frisch competes double

Senior Natasha Frisch (Mendota Heights) completed a double in the breaststroke by winning the 100 (1:09.51) Saturday, one day after capturing the 50 for the second straight year. Frisch won the 100 by over a second over freshman Emily Donatio of Westfield State University.

The Warriors remained undefeated in the relays by adding the 200 medley (1:51.09) and 800 freestyle (8:14.02) titles to their 200 freestyle and 400 medley titles from Friday, setting their second championship relay record in two days in the 800 freestyle. The winning 200 medley relay was less than a second off the program record.

In addition to the All-LEC relays, four individuals swam to All-LEC honors, with four additional swimmers missing all-conference honors by one spot. Earning All-LEC recognition Saturday in addition to Frisch were three first-year swimmers: Jai-Lynn Wheeler (Stonington), Julia Ames (Pawtucket, RI) and Ashley Carvente (Norwalk).

After sharing second place in the 50 freestyle Friday, Wheeler captured the 200 freestyle (1:59.22) in a time Saturday which was roughly a second off of Eastern Hall of Famer Amy Arisco's program record; Ames followed Wheeler for a second-place finish in the 200 freestyle with a time of 2:03.24 and Carvente, second Friday in the 100 butterfly, was third Saturday in the 400 individual medley (4:57.28).

Providing additional points behind Wheeler and Ames in the 200 freestyle were junior Stacey Sheno (Newington) and first-year swimmer Elizabeth Nedobity (Portland), who placed fourth (2:04.86) and seventh (2:06.97), respectively.

The finals of the final seven women's events are set to start Sunday at 5:30 p.m. Two Eastern women are seeded first in their respective events: Jai-Lynn Wheeler in the 100 freestyle and Carvente in the 200 butterfly, while Frisch looks for her third individual title as the No. 2 seed in the  100 IM, which she has won each of the past two years. She finished .18 seconds behind University of New England senior Maeve McDermott in Sunday morning's preliminaries. Wheeler shared second place in Friday's 50 freestyle and was first in Saturday's 200 freestyle; Carvente was second Friday in the 100 butterfly and third in the 400 IM.

For men, Tito repeats as 400 IM winner; Bagtaz and Quiterio break records again

Second-year junior transfers Boden Tito (Southington) and Eric Quiterio (Windsor) and first-year athlete Spencer Bagtaz (Wilmington, MA) were among the top performers for the men, who had three individuals and one relay attain All-LEC honors.

Tito, who won the 200 IM Friday in a program-record time of 1:56.46, repeated as the 400 IM champion from a year ago with a winning time of 4:11.64 which was over five seconds faster than his preliminary time. Tito outclassed the field in the final, winning by a dozen seconds over Keene State junior Leo Lauridsen.

Quiterio and Bagtaz broke program records for the second straight day in the butterfly and backstroke, respectively. Quiterio broke his own program record with a record time of 23.58 in a third-place finish in the 50 butterfly while Bagtaz broke Joseph Sylvester's three-year-old record in the 100 backstroke with a time of 55.09 in a fourth-place finish.

Joining Tito and Quiterio and the 200 medley relay in earning All-LEC accolades Saturday was junior Ryan Jezek (Avon). Second in the 50 freestyle Friday, Jezek was third in the 200 freestyle (1:48.56) Saturday. The 200 medley relay posted a third-place finish in a time of 1:37.80.