On October 11, 2025, both the Men’s and Women’s swim teams participated in the opening meet of the season against Rowan University. Despite the gray weather, the swimmers took to the pool like ducks to water. The Ducks narrowly lost to Rowan but put in great performances, showing promise for the rest of the season.
The meet began with the women’s 200-yard medley relay, in which the four-member team finished second. The team members were seniors Natalia Brunetti and Adriana Bertolotti, freshman Samantha Gallo, and sophomore Delaney Klaus. They finished with a time of 1:53.45, less than .3 seconds behind the winners. The men’s 200-yard medley relay followed immediately. A team made up of four seniors, Angel Velasquez, Lukas Mikulenas, Deo Bove, and Will Stibor, won the race with a time of 1:36.58.
In terms of individual races, there were many standout performances. Klaus won her race with a 25.45 in the 50 freestyle. This was actually Stevens’ first win of the 2025-26 swim season. The most impressive was by Velasquez, who came first in both the 100 backstroke at 54.41 and the 200 breaststroke at 2:15.26, on top of the relay he had won earlier. In the 200 breaststroke, he won by more than an entire second. In the 100 backstroke, Velasquez was just ahead of another Stevens swimmer, who also did well in the race, sophomore Ethan Emerton, by .29 seconds.
Sophomore Dora Dvorkin placed second in both the 1000 freestyle and 200 breaststroke with times of 11:14.09 and 2:35.95, respectively. Eszter Kiss, a sophomore, also performed well, coming second in both the 100 and 200 freestyle, and third in the 500 freestyle. Hanna Matheson, a sophomore, took second in the 200 butterfly in 2:15.55. Brunetti returned in the 200 backstroke for another runner-up, going 2:17.22. Klaus earned her second victory of the meet by winning the 100 butterfly in 1:01.34. She was followed by Gallo, who came second in her debut meet.
Mikulenas won the men’s 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:00.70. Bove got a victory of his own, tying for first in the 100 butterfly in 52.62. Sophomore Andrew Gaba took third in the 500 free in 5:06.96. Emerton won the 200-back, touching the wall at 1:59.23. Senior Will Stibor sprinted to a win in the 50 freestyle in 22.06.
Freshmen Sebastien Nappi, Yusuf Tokuz, and Cooper Moffat were all impressive in their college debuts. Nappi and Tokuz finished second and third in the 200 freestyle with times of 1:50.72 and 1:52.28, respectively. Moffat was especially notable by finishing third in the 1000 freestyle in 10:19.73 and winning the 200 individual medley in 2:02.03 after closing with the fastest freestyle leg in the race.
The meet ended with the women’s and men’s 200-yard freestyle relays. The women’s team of Bertolotti, Brunetti, Gallo, and Klaus swam at 1:43.73. This placed them in second, and they were only one-tenth of a second behind the winners. Velasquez, senior Gailen Davis, Bove, and Stibor made up the men’s team that also finished second, just .23 seconds behind Rowan.
Clearly, these were some amazing performances by the ducks. Despite the overall loss, it was a very close match, and there is definitely much to look forward to for the season ahead.
