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For the second consecutive season, Fairfield Women’s Swimming and Diving stood atop the podium at the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) Winter Championship this past weekend in East Meadow, N.Y. The Stags accumulated 16 medals during the three-day event, highlighted by winning gold in five events.

Individually, Maria Nitti ’21 took home gold in the 50-yard freestyle, setting a new Fairfield record with a time of 23.49 seconds. Sara Ostensen ’21 clamed first place in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:05.14 in addition to earning an individual silver and bronze at the meet.

Fairfield distanced itself from the pack with victories in three different relays: the 200-yard medley (Alexandra Miko-Rydzaj ’23, Colleen Young ’20, Morgan Hansen ’21 and Nitti), the 200-yard freestyle (Sam D’Alessandro ’22, Emily Holman ’20, Ostensen and Nitti), and the 400-yard medley (Miko-Rydzaj, Victoria Krivitsky ’21, Hansen and Nitti).

Last winter, Fairfield followed its ECAC Winter Championship triumph by earning the program’s second-straight Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Championship. This year’s conference meet is slated for Feb. 12–15 in Buffalo, N.Y.

On the men’s side, the Stags finished second after placing third in the same event one year ago. Fairfield’s weekend was highlighted by a pair of major awards as Devon O’Nalty was named the Men’s Diving Coach of the Meet while Samuel Tonole ’23 was tabbed as the Men’s Diver of the Meet. Tonole won the one-meter dive and placed second in the three-meter dive.

Lukas Stanton also won gold off the three-meter board for the Stags, while Fairfield picked up two wins in swimming events courtesy of Evan Fair ’22. Fair beat the field in both the 200-yard and 400-yard individual medley.