The Massachusetts men’s swimming and diving team finished its 2025-2026 season on the road at the Missouri Valley Conference Championships in Evansville, Ind. This marked the program’s first opportunity to compete head-to-head against conference opponents as a member of the MVC.
This four-day conference championship meet, which took place from Wednesday, Feb. 25 through Saturday, Feb. 28 at the Deaconess Aquatic Center in Evansville, featured a competitive group of schools. This included Missouri State, Miami (OH), Ohio, Southern Illinois, Ball State, UIC, Evansville and Valparaiso.
The Minutemen (4-3) finished the conference meet in fourth place with 925.5 points in a strong championship debut against their new conference opponents.
Freshman Hudson Bawduniak gave one of the best performances of the meet on Friday in the 100-yard breaststroke. Bawduniak swam a blistering time of 53.14 in the preliminary heat, which broke the program record. He swam a 53.15 in the final heat, almost as fast as his morning swim, to win the silver medal in the event.
Bawduniak swam well in the 200-yard breaststroke, capping off a strong individual effort with a bronze medal. His teammate, Elias Panachyda, was right behind him, touching the wall in fourth place in the event.
The 400-yard medley relay team of freshman Liam Hickey, sophomore Nate Derby, Bawduniak and senior Sammy Quigg took fifth place overall with a time of 3:14:6. In the process, the relay team broke the previous program record of 3:15:71. Previously part of the record-setting relay in 2023-24, Quigg helped leapfrog that record a second time in the final meet of his senior year.
Wednesday night, the 200-yard freestyle relay team, composed of senior Aidan Shepston, Hickey, freshman Macek Vandermolen and Quigg, achieved a fifth-place finish after completing the race in 1:20.56. The team beat the old school record, which was set during the 2015-2016 season, by a narrow margin of 0.32 seconds.
This momentum was sustained into Thursday, as the 200-yard medley relay team achieved a fifth-place finish after completing the race in 1:28.08. The team, composed of Cole Brooks, Bawduniak, Shepston and Vandermolen, beat the old program record which was set during the 2019-2020 season, making it the third team to do so in as many days.
UMass’ divers also made significant contributions throughout the meet. Sophomore Alex Kreidler scored 288.45 points to place fifth in the preliminaries and move on to the final competition. Kreidler improved his score and place to finish the day with a fourth-place score of 291.80.
Freshman Carson Harrington also earned a spot in the consolation final of the one-meter board, where he scored 291.80 to place 11th overall.
On the three-meter board, Kreidler and Harrington both earned a spot in the final competition. Harrington scored 312.0 points to place sixth overall, while Kreidler scored 320.75 to place 10th overall and second in the consolation final.
The Bears of Missouri State won the championship with a score of 1,446.5, led by the MVC men’s freshman swimmer of the year Kiefer Roemer and MVC men’s swimming coach of the year Dave Collins. The Salukis finished in third place with the RedHawks in second place, giving Miami (OH) bragging rights over Southern Illinois.
Over the course of the four days of racing, the Minutemen combined veteran experience with the impact of the freshmen to rewrite the record books multiple times on their way to a fourth-place overall finish and a fierce entrance into the MVC.
Olivia Thibodeaux can be reached at [email protected]
