MIDDLETOWN, Conn. – The Williams College Ephs won the first event of the 2026 NESCAC Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships hosted by Wesleyan University on Thursday evening.

The 800 freestyle relay team of Esme Van Orden, Carter Roebuck, Lily Codd, and Sophie Phelps combined for a winning time of 7:20.41. The foursome set a Wesleyan pool record and achieved an NCAA B-cut time while dropping over 11 seconds off the relay's seed time. The Ephs won the event for the third consecutive championship and 17th time since 2001.

The Amherst foursome of Ava Insteness, Maeve Kelley, Penny Lazar, and Paige Arnold placed second with a time of 7:24.04 (NCAA B-cut), shaving 10 seconds off the relay's entry time. Tufts rounded out the All-NESCAC honorees as Madeleine Dunn, Quinci Wheeler, Elena Harrison, and Sweeney Su registered a time of 7:32.91 (NCAA B-cut) to finish third.

Friday's day two action at the NESCAC Championships begins with swimming prelims at 10 a.m. The diving trials are set for 1:30 p.m. and the finals are scheduled for 6 p.m.

HOW TO WATCH
A live webcast will be available at NESCAC.com on computers and mobile devices. The webcast can also be seen on Roku, AppleTV, and Amazon Fire devices. Search for NESCAC Network and download the channel. Click here for more information.

Live results and heat sheets will be available throughout the weekend at NESCAC.com on the Women's Swimming & Diving Championship page and via Meet Mobile.