This week, Central Connecticut’s swimming and diving team faced big competition at the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Women’s Swimming and Diving Winter Championships. With many events spread across three days from Friday to Sunday, the multitude of schools that participated were each designated specific days for competition. Central participated on Saturday, with six events out of 40.

Central did not win any events but still held their own with 73 points. Overall, they placed 15^th out of 17 schools that participated. The small number of events they participated in accounted for these results, but the stars of Central placed highest in the 400-yard Individual Medley out of the rest of their events.

Senior, Aidan Devers competed and placed second by two seconds in the IM at the beginning of November at the tri-meet with Bryant and Wagner. Before that, she won both events at the prior two meets. Her excellent efforts continued this Saturday, as she placed 11^th out of 40 swimmers.

Her teammate, Gracie Regan was right behind her by 0.36 seconds. Junior Kaitlyn Troy, freshman Alex Lindgren, sophomore Valentina Gomez and freshman Jeannette King comprised the 400-yard medley relay team which came in 15th. Wagner was part of the competition again this week, placing second overall of 25 teams.

King, Troy and Gomez are avid medley relay contributors for the team as they have proven to be tough competitors against Bryant and Wagner last meet when they came in third place. Wagner was part of the competition again this week, placing second overall.

Regan and Lindgren both competed in the 100-yard breaststroke and placed 31^st and 36^th of 79 swimmers. Lindgren has been consistently placing in the top three for every breaststroke event in the past. Her placement in this week’s competition solidified her dominant breaststroke efforts for the team. Regan, who came in second in the 1000 yard freestyle event last meet, wet her feet in breaststroke this week and provided a respectable outing.

Some other generally positively-faring events for the Blue Devils are the backstroke events. Troy, Devers, and King participated in the 100-yard backstroke event and placed 23^rd, 27^th and 28^th out of 80 swimmers. Central’s backstroke outings have been strong, with King getting edged out of top three at the Bryant/Wagner tri-meet by 0.05 seconds. Freshman Katie Czulewicz, who is also usually a strong relay contributor, placed 36^th.

Following the strong freestyle outings from the past, Czulewicz and King were on fire as they blew past 80 other swimmers to place 19^th and 23^rd respectively in the 200-yard freestyle event. The event had 101 participants. The race was very close as Czulewicz was edged out by a mere 0.06 seconds from her closest competition. Both swimmers have been doing very well in the past freestyle events, both grabbing top five places in last meets 100-yard freestyle and King placing third in the 50-yard event.

All in all, the competition was fierce this week, and the events were scarce for the Blue Devils. They continued to improve on the freestyle and backstroke events, and a solid and consistent relay team has been put into place to ensure a tough time for the opponents. These efforts look to be on display on Saturday, Dec. 12 when they travel to the Florida international to take on the Panthers.