Women’s Swimming & Diving: Laitala, Allen garner first GNAC weekly honors of 2025-26 season

WINTHROP, Mass. – The Norwich University ladies’s swimming & diving staff opened the 2025-26 marketing campaign proper the place it left off, among the many finest within the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC), as senior Reilly Laitala (Sterling, Mass.) and freshman Delaney Allen (Gibsonia, Pa.) earned GNAC Diver of the Week and Rookie of the Week honors, respectively, as introduced by the league workplace on Monday afternoon.

The Cadets made a powerful assertion of their season opener on the Keene State Sprint Pentathlon on Saturday, delivering a number of spectacular performances throughout a novel format that mixed instances from 5 dash occasions, together with the 50-yard butterfly, 50-yard backstroke, 50-yard breaststroke, 50-yard freestyle, and 100-yard IM, right into a cumulative complete for every swimmer.  The meet additionally featured 200-yard medley and freestyle relays, together with 1-meter diving competitors.

Allen dazzled in her collegiate debut, putting fourth general amongst a 50-plus athlete subject with a composite time of three:07.82.  She completed third within the 50-yard butterfly (28.68), eleventh within the 50-yard backstroke (32.37), fourth within the breaststroke (34.43), second within the freestyle (26.57), and third within the IM (1:05.77).  She additionally anchored each of Norwich’s high relay squads, which claimed third-place finishes within the 200-yard medley and 200-yard freestyle relays.

Her Rookie of the Week nod is the primary of her profession, and marks this system’s first rookie recognition since Anna Gosselin (Lisbon, Conn.) earned the distinction on Nov. 20, 2023.

Laitala, the reigning two-time GNAC Women’s Diver of the Year, started her senior marketing campaign in dominant trend with a first-place end on the 1-meter board, recording a meet-best rating of 215.65.  The consequence was greater than 30 factors away from the following closest competitor within the subject of 4.

The weekly award is Laitala’s twelfth general as a Cadet, following a six-award season in 2024-25 that continued to assist cement her as some of the adorned divers in league historical past.

Norwich will return to the pool on Saturday, Oct. 25, when it opens its house slate towards GNAC rival Regis College at 11:00 a.m. inside Goodyear Pool.  The meet marks the beginning of a three-meet homestand that features visits from Husson University on Nov. 1 and Maine Maritime Academy on Nov. 8.