Stroke of Genius

or the swarthmore women’s swimming program, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026 was business as usual: during the final day of the Centennial Conference (CC) Championships, the Garnet claimed their fifth straight CC crown with record-shattering performances and NCAA qualifying times. Quinn Weygandt ’26 was named Most Outstanding Performer for the third season in a row.

Zooming out shows a different picture, one that illustrates how the Garnet have developed the team depth and mental resilience characteristic of a top Division III program.

A blizzard forecasted to bring over a foot of snow to the region forced the conference to compress the preliminary and final swims for each event into one single final.

In addition to disrupting the swimmers’ routine, this change also shrank the margin of error: a student-athlete could overcome a less than ideal swim in the prelims as long as they qualified for the finals; on this morning, they’d have no such cushion.

Also looming were the Johns Hopkins University Blue Jays, who had joined the conference in 2025 and were only a few spots behind the Garnet in the national rankings with both teams just outside the top 10.

En route to their four previous CC titles, Swarthmore had set a new points record at every championship meet and finished over 100 points ahead of second place, but the Garnet only held an 18.5-point margin over the Jays (561 to 542.5) entering the final day. In fact, the challengers led by a mere three points before the last event of the meet, the 400 free relay.

In the “B” final, the team of Sam Packard ’27, Marin Norlander ’28, Ava Craig ’27, and Cara Dominici ’27 finished in first to set the tone. Then, Genine Collins ’27, one of the top sprinters in Division III, opened the “A” relay with a blistering 50.40 leg before handing it off to Riley Bacinski ’29.

Weygandt came next and Elle Anthony ’26 sealed the win with a 50.66 anchor leg for a total time of 3:23:55, over three seconds faster than second-place Hopkins and a new conference record. In total, Swarthmore won 18 medals (12 gold, five silver, and one bronze) and showcased its depth by earning points from all 18 swimmers, the maximum allowable at the event.

“Winning as a team is more special than going up on the podium alone to accept a medal,” says Collins. “There’s no better feeling than being surrounded by your teammates and basking in the glory together, knowing you’ll never experience that particular moment with that unique group of people ever again. ”

“The conference championship is a meet like none other and you have to be there to feel the energy,” adds Weygandt. “It was bittersweet knowing this was the end of the road, so this win felt especially memorable because it came down to the very last race.”