PREVIEW: Swim & Dive Opens 2025-26 Marketing campaign at DU

GREELEY, Colo. – Coming off a record-breaking 2024-25 marketing campaign, Northern Colorado ladies’s swimming & diving kicks off its 2025-26 season this weekend on the Front Range Invitational, hosted by the University of Denver. The meet shall be held Friday and Saturday on the El Pomar Natatorium, with diving competitors going down at Air Force.

Action begins Friday at 5 p.m., with Saturday classes set for 11 a.m. in swimming and 10 a.m. in diving.

The Bears need to construct on a historic season that featured worldwide success, faculty data, and a number of podium finishes on the ultimate Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Championships. UNC positioned sixth general with 458.5 factors, highlighted by standout performances throughout the roster.

Northern Colorado returns a number of key contributors, together with nationwide file holders Maria Erokhina (Cyprus) and Kyra Rabess (Cayman Islands), who each competed on the 2024 Short Course World Championships in Budapest. Erokhina broke nationwide data within the 100 and 200 breaststroke, whereas Rabess set new requirements within the 400 and 800 freestyle.

The Bears additionally noticed program-best marks final 12 months, with 2025 graduate Madison Berg setting a brand new faculty file on the 1-meter dive and the 800 free relay staff of Rabess, Lora Konter, Martina Yuki Trionfetti, and Lily Mayer smashing this system’s earlier file en path to a gold-medal end.

At the WAC Championships, UNC tallied a handful of podium finishes, together with silver medals from Erokhina within the 200 breaststroke and the 400 freestyle relay (Trionfetti, Ellyson Lombardi, Konter, and Rabess). Rabess, Trionfetti, Lombardi, and Ellyson Lombardi additionally secured particular person bronze medals to cap off the 12 months.

The Front Range Invite marks the primary check for the Bears as they open one other promising season on the highway.

FOLLOW THE BEARS

For full protection of UNC Athletics, take a look at the official homepage at uncbears.com. Follow the ladies’s swim and dive staff on X (previously Twitter) (@UNC_BearsSwim), Instagram (@UNC_BearsSwim_Dive), and Facebook (/UNCOBearsswimdive).