VILLANOVA, Pa. – Villanova Swimming and Diving makes the trek to Geneva, Ohio this week for the BIG EAST Championships presented by JEEP. The four-day event starts on Monday, February 24 at the SPIRE Academy.
Last year's championship saw the women win their 11
th consecutive BIG EAST title, their 16
th in program history. Their 1482.5 points were the third-most scored by any team at the meet since 1983, just behind the 2024 and 2023 squads that scored 1534 and 1498, respectively. Head Coach
Rick Simpson and his staff were honored as Co-Coaching Staff of the year for an 11
th straight year, as well. On the individual side, Villanova had a pair of athletes earn top honors at the meet;
Audrey Pastorek repeated as Co-Most Outstanding Women's Swimmer, the 19
th such honor for the program, while
Nicholas Jubilee earned Villanova's sixth Co-Most Outstanding Men's Diver. He highlighted a men's team that finished fourth for a second consecutive season.
Jubilee leads a charge of 15 'Cats who are heading to Ohio as returning medalists with nines of them being previous champions. He is the only returning gold medalist for the men, winning last year's 1-meter in thrilling action on the final night of competition when he won by just two-tenths of a point. On the women's side, eight previous champions will hit the water for the 'Cats:
Lexi Elkovitch (800 Free Relay: 2023; 400 Free Relay: 2021, 2023; 200 Free Relay, 2021, 2022, 2023; 400 Medley Relay: 2023),
Mary Kate Farrell (800 Free Relay: 2023, 2024),
Winnie Jalet (100 Breast: 2023, 200 Breast: 2023; 200 Medley Relay: 2023; 400 Medley Relay: 2023),
Arabella Lee (100 Fly: 2024;200 Medley Relay: 2023),
Katie White (200 Fly: 2023; 400 Medley Relay: 2023),
Marlene Blanke (800 Free Relay: 2024),
Carlota Colomer Guasch (200 Free Relay: 2024),
Lainey Quinones (200 Free Relay: 2023, 2024), 800 Free Relay: 2023).
Wall-to-wall coverage of all championship action, including prelims, finals and awards, will air live on the BIG EAST Digital Network on FloSports, presented by Invesco QQQ. Monday's opening day of competition will start at 1 p.m. with coverage of the men's 3-meter diving prelims before finals begin at 5:45 p.m. featuring the 800 Free Relay, men's 3-meter and 200 Medley Relay. The following three days will have prelims starting at 10 a.m. with finals starting at 5:45 p.m.
More information on the championship meet including a full schedule of events can be found at
the Championship Central page. Fans can also follow the team on
X, formerly known as Twitter, and
Instagram feeds at @novaswimdive for all of the latest up-to-the-minute updates throughout the week.
