Women’s Swim and Dive Concludes Season at NCAA Championships

Whilst their classmates travelled to tropical destinations over spring break, some members of the women’s swim and dive team travelled down to Atlanta, Ga., for the National Championship meet to compete against the nation’s fastest in the pool.

The four-day event was hosted at the Georgia Tech pool, the McAuley Aquatic Centre. The pool was designed for the 1996 Olympic aquatic events and is known for its “fast” design, including specialised air systems and gutter design.

The NCAA brings together the top collegiate swimmers to compete for a national title. In total, the meet included 322 athletes divided across 21 different events in swimming and diving.

It is no simple feat to even qualify for the national finals. Swimmers earn a championship bid through either winning their conference with an established minimum time in an event or by meeting the established minimum time for an event.

Divers gain their chance to compete through an automatic spot at zone meets a few weeks before. This was the 14th consecutive season that the Crimson has sent athletes to the NCAA competition.

Harvard sent three seniors, Sydney Lu, Anya Mostek, and diver Nina Janmyr, and junior Alexandra Bastone.

The first Crimson swimmer to take their mark at the Championships was Bastone in the 1650-yard freestyle. The grueling endurance event, which is the longest event in NCAA swimming, saw Bastone touch at 16:17:85. This gave her a final finish of 27th out of the 40 competitors.

On the second day of competition, Lu and Janmyr took to the pool. Lu made her inaugural appearance at the national championship, having qualified by winning the Ivy League title in the 100-yard butterfly. Her time of 53.10 was unfortunately not fast enough to advance to the finals.

Janmyr boasted the most experience of the group, as she was the only Harvard athlete present to compete at all four editions of the championships. She completed her final collegiate dives in the one-meter springboard, competing six dives, including impressive forward two-and-a-half somersaults and inward one-and-a-half somersaults, as some of her most challenging. She placed 43rd to close out her Harvard career.

The third day of the event saw Mostek return to the national meet for the first time since 2024, having missed the championship due to an injury the past year. Mostek took to the blocks in two events across the day, highlighting her endurance. In the first race, the 100-yard backstroke, she secured 34th place, and in the 50-yard backstroke, she finished 40th overall.

Bastone competed in the 500-yard freestyle as the reigning Ivy League Champion. She closed out her second nationals appearance with a 40th-place finish in the event.

On the final day of the championships, Mostek adorned the Harvard crest for a final time for the 200-yard backstroke. She was coming off a personal best performance in the event at the Ivy League Championships, and narrowly missed her time by 0.24 seconds. The senior placed 23rd to post the Crimson’s best finish of the competition.

On the final day of the meet, the University of Virginia lifted the championship trophy for its sixth straight title. Although the Crimson struggled to achieve notable finishes, the meet was a momentous and memorable end to the three seniors’ collegiate careers, in which they have continued the impressive legacy of the Harvard program.

—Staff writer Rhiannon Stewart can be reached at [email protected].

—Staff writer Avani I. Shah-Lipman can be reached at [email protected].