WEST FARGO, N.D. – The first day of the 2026 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Women's Swimming & Diving Championship is complete with Southwest Minnesota State earning 92 points and is currently in eighth place at the 10-team championship.
The four-day championship is being hosted by MSU Moorhead and held inside the Hulbert Aquatic Center.
A total of five event finals took place on Wednesday night with Minnesota State leading the championship with 299 points. St. Cloud State is in second place with 213.5 points, followed by UMary in third place with 164 points. SMSU trails seventh-place MSU Moorhead by 12 points.
SMSU's
Lexi Weems qualified for the 'A' finals of the 50-yard freestyle with a school record time of 23.57 in the prelims, breaking her own record of 24.10. Her time of 23.57 was the fifth fastest time of the prelims and is an NCAA 'B' provisional mark. Unfortunately, Weems suffered a false start in the finals to place eighth overall and with the false start was not awarded any team points.
Carla Nevi competed in the 'B' finals of the 200 IM and placed 13th overall with a time of 2:09.61 to earn four team points.
Savannah Orzech placed 15
th overall in the 1,000-yard freestyle with a time of 11:02.40 to secure two team points.
SMSU had a pair of teams in the 200-yard medley relay earn team points.
Carla Nevi,
Maddy Storm,
Maggie Johnson and Weems finished fourth with a school record time of 1:46.09 to earn 38 points, while
Emily Quanbeck,
Caitlyn Hasenjager,
Grace Aesoph and
Elyanna Dogotch picked up 10 points with a 16
th place time of 1:52.56.
The Mustangs' 800-yard freestyle relay squad of
Kendal Engelker,
Savannah Orzech,
Sophie Bisek and
Maggie Johnson earned 30 points placing eighth with a time of 8:09.45. SMSU earned eight more points as the 800-yard freestyle team of
Olivia Johnson,
Alana Condezo,
Isabelle Bodart and
Madyson Perry finished 17th with a time of 8:20.28.
Day two of the championship begins on Thursday with prelims at 10 a.m. with the finals beginning at 5 p.m. Thursday will feature the 100 Fly, 400 IM, 200 Free, 3-Meter Diving, 400 Medley Relay.
The top three finalists in each individual event and top two finalists in each relay event will be recognized as all-conference during the meet.
