EAST MEADOW, N.Y. – With seven medals on the final day of competition, five of those gold, Villanova women's swimming and diving won its ninth-consecutive BIG EAST Championships on Saturday, bringing the program to 14 titles since 1992.
The Wildcats won 14 events throughout the week and totaled 24 medals. They scored 1498 points throughout the four-day event, distancing itself from runner-up UConn by 75.5 points. The Wildcats swept relay action, taking gold in all five events on the week, adding on nine individual wins.
Kelly Montesi was named the Women's Most Outstanding Swimmer, her third title in the last four years and second in a row. She is the second Villanova swimmer to be lauded three times in her career, the other being
Darby Goodwin from 2016-2018. The senior won three individual golds, the last one coming on Saturday night when she set the BIG EAST record in the 200 Back with an NCAA-B cut time of 1:53.25, besting the previous conference mark by three-tenths of a second for her second title in the event. She also won her fourth title in the 400 IM and a third 200 IM title. In relay action, she was a part of four victories, including the 200 Medley, 800 Free, 400 Medley and 400 Free.
Head coach
Rick Simpson and his staff were tabbed the Women's Coaching Staff of the Year for the ninth season in a row. He accepted the honor alongside his assistant coaches
Laura McGlaughlin,
Nate Brown and
Evan Anthony and diving coach
Todd Michael.
The final day started with Montesi resetting a program record she set for the 200 Back at the WVU Invitational earlier this season. She clocked in at 1:54.93, besting her previous record by two-hundredths of a second to lock in the top spot in the prelims. With her latest time, she now holds five of the top 10 fastest times for the event in team history. She,
Audrey Pastorek and
Hannah Wasmuth all turned in times good enough for A-Final spots. In the final, Montesi was joined by Pastorek at the top of the podium, taking bronze with a 1:58.67 to become the third-fastest performer in program history while Wasmuth became the fourth-fastest with a fourth-place 1:59.30.
Nicole Welch won the second 1650 Free gold of her career with a time of 16:42.08.
Brenna McLaughlin was fourth at 16:55.90.
Milly Routledge won the 100 Free for a third-straight year, this time touching in 50.00. She was followed closely by
Abbey Berloco who tied the mark of tenth-fastest performer in Villanova history with a silver time of 50.41.
Lexi Elkovitch touched the wall seventh with a 51.55 time.
In the 200 Fly prelims,
Elizabeth Bailey had the leading swim with a 2:01.36 time, making her to ninth-fastest performer in Villanova history. In the championship final, she jumped up to fourth on that list with a 2:00.28 showing.
The 400 Free Relay team of Berloco,
Cara Stapleton, Montesi and Routledge cemented the win for the 'Cats with a winning time of 3:20.68. That mark now sits at the fifth-fastest time in Villanova history.
Kaitlin Gravell became the sixth-fastest 200 Breast performer in Villanova history with a fourth-place time of 2:16.73.
Perri Stahl reset her personal record in fifth at 2:20.52.
