WATERVILLE, Maine – The Husson University women's swimming & diving have been crowned the North Atlantic Conference 2023-2024 champions after this past weekend's NAC championship that was held at the Metropolitan Collegiate Swimming & Diving Conference Championship at Rutgers University Aquatic Center in Piscataway, New Jersey. 
 
Husson charted a total of 547 points to land the top spot in the NAC leaderboard, earning the program's first-ever three-peat. Maine Maritime Academy finished in second with 512 points while Gordon College earned third place with a score of 393. SUNY Delhi did not place in the meet.
 
The METS meet served as the 2024 NAC men's & women's swimming & diving championship. NAC swimmers and divers were scored separately from the METS to determine a NAC champion.
 
Husson finished the weekend with nine NAC first place individual honors and two top finishes in team relays with eight new school records. 
 
The Weekend at a Glance:
After day one of the championship meet, Husson trailed Maine Maritime Academy, 154-124. The Mariners saw gold in the first event of the day as the team of Natasha Kopeck, Elizavata Zhukov, Kylie Cantlon, and Rayelle Brewer won the 200-yard free relay with a time of 1:45.81. Husson was seconds behind with a time of 1:48.57 to earn the second-place finish with the team of senior Kayla Payson, freshman Mackenize Gray, freshman Mia Winslow and junior Rachel Hand.  In the 500-yard freestyle, Husson found themselves success with Payson (5:37.22, second), sophomore Maggie Poulin (6:08.48, sixth) and freshman Isabella Cost (6:32.89, eighth) all placing in the top-eight respectively. Hand captured the NAC title in the 200-yard individual medley with a new school record time of 2:14.21. Junior Erin Madden finished third with a time of 2:28.96. Gray placed sixth in the 50-yard freestyle with a 28.52. Husson would end the day with a 400-yard medley relay victory over Maine Maritime with a time of 4:21.54, earning themselves their third-straight NAC title. The Eagles' team in the event consisted of Hand, Madden, Payson and Winslow. 
 
Day two started off with another neck and neck relay performance between Maine Maritime and Husson. Hand, Madden, Payson and Winslow would place second in the 200-yard medley relay just a hundredth of a second behind the Mariners with a time of 2:00.15. Sophomore Riley Mahoney would find success on the 3-meter diving board after placing as the top finisher for the NAC with a new school record score of 332.90. Gray came in fourth in the 400-yard individual medley with a time of 5:45.23. Payson won the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:01.51 after setting a new program record in the event in the morning prelims with a 1:01.26. Meanwhile graduate student Hannah Soutter finished fourth after swimming a 1:10.78 and junior Kat Christensen placed sixth with a 1:34.59. Winslow, Poulin and Cost placed third, fourth and seventh in the 200-yard freestyle with times of 2:18.52, 2:19.05 and 2:26.23. Madden (1:17.37) and junior Grace Rocheleau (1:19.42) finished 1-2 in the 100-yard breaststroke while freshman Aura Morin was fifth with a 1:27.01. In the 100-yard backstroke, Hand swam to her second-straight NAC title with a time of 1:00.13 after breaking the Husson record in the morning prelims with a time of 1:00.02. Winslow and Rocheleau finished fifth and sixth after swimming times of 1:10.36 and 1:09.25.  Madden, Cost, Poulin and Soutter closed out day two with a third-place finish in the 800-yard freestyle relay with a time of 9:18.56.

Husson was down five points going into the final day of the championship. The Eagles began the day by seeing Poulin (21.51.20), Cost (23:15.71) and Christensen (26:36.71) finish fifth, sixth and seventh in the 1,650-yard freestyle. In the one-meter diving, Mahoney placed second after tallying 381.50 points, sophomore Lily Butler was third with a score of 314.25 and sophomore Joey Lynn Ramsdell racked up 288.90 points to place fifth. Mahoney broke the program's one-meter diving 11-set record when she scored 393.60 points during the morning prelims. Madden won the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:27.55. She was followed up by Winslow (2:25.39) and Soutter (2:32.85) in second and fifth. Hand captured her third NAC title of the meet with a first-place finish in the 100-yard freestyle with a new school record time of 55.29. Rocheleau captured Husson's third-straight 200-yard breaststroke NAC title with a time of 2:49.59 while Gray logged a time of 3:01.49 to finish seventh and ahead of Morin's eighth-place effort of 3:09.19. Payson earned her third-consecutive NAC crown in the 200-yard butterfly after swimming a time of 2:18.78. Payson broke her own school record in the event when she swam a 2:18.73 in the morning prelims. Christensen also scored in the event, placing sixth overall with a time of 3:34.54. Husson secured the program's third NAC championship after out swimming Maine Maritime and Gordon in the 400-yard freestyle relay. The team of Payson, Winslow, Madden and Hand won Husson's third-straight NAC crown in the event with a time 3:54.28. 
 
In the Metro portion of the Championship, Husson came in second out of 11 schools earning of score of 814 while finishing as the highest NCAA division III member school that completed in the championship meet.

The Eagles return to action on Saturday when they complete in Maine Maritime Academy's Last Chance Meet.