WESTFIELD, Mass. – Westfield State senior Wiktoria Kaczor (Belchertown, Mass.) won her third individual event title, and Alexa Richter set a school record time on Sunday at the 2023 Little East Conference swimming and diving championships at the Boston Sports Institute in Wellesley, Mass.
Kaczor won 200 breaststroke in a time of 2:29.56, five full seconds ahead of her nearest competitor. For Kaczor, the win completed a sweep of the breaststroke events, as she won the 50 on Friday, and the 100 on Saturday.
The Owls also scored well in the 100 freestyle, where sophomore Alexa Richter (Westfield, Mass.) placed second in 100 freestyle, where she lowered her own school-record time to 54.61, 77/100th behind event winner Maya Brody of Eastern Connecticut. Westfield State senior Nicole Pechulis (Longmeadow, Mass.) was third in 55.89.
Two other Owls swimmers advanced to the A Finals in their events, as Olivia Harkins placed fifth in the 50 yard backstroke, and Allyson Linkenhoker (Monson, Mass./Belchertown HS) took fifth place in the 200 butterfly.
Westfield capped the meet with a strong second-place in 400 freestyle relay, with Richter, Kat Ferri (Springfield, Mass./Central), Kaczor and Pechulis swam 3:45.87, finishing behind only the meet winners from Keene State.
Keene won the team title with a score of 830.5, followed by Bridgewater State (692), Eastern Connecticut (583.5), Westfield (530) and the University of the New England (442.5) to round out the top five of the 10-team meet.
Westfield wraps up the meet, and the season, with four individual LEC titles, as Richter took home top honors in the 1000 freestyle yesterday. The Owls finished the year 4-3 in dual meets under first-year head coach Tom Avila, with Westfield posting its 29th straight winning season.