Vickles’ Howard University team cops first NEC swim title

T&T swimmer Gabrielle Vickles copped three relay gold medals, inclusive of two new meet records, as Howard University women’s swimming and diving team captured their first Northeastern Conference Championship at SPIRE Institute Geneva, Ohio, on Saturday (February 21).

Vickles was part of Howard University’s women’s record-winning swims in the 200-yard freestyle relay and 400-yard freestyle relay, while they also won the 200-yard medley relay.

The first relay gold medal for Vickles came as the anchor for the Howard University women’s 200-yard medley relay quartet, which also featured Chanice Posada, Rhaniskha Gibbs and Alyssa Napier for a winning time of one minute, 41.34 seconds, well clear of Central Connecticut State University (1:43.05 minutes) and Wagner College (1:43.24), who placed second and third, respectively.

The second relay gold for Vickles came in the 200-yard freestyle relay when she swam the second leg behind Zuilda Nwaeze with Posada and Jasmine Morgan, the other swimmers, for a combined time of one minute, 31.53 seconds, which bettered the previous top NEC meet time of 1:32.43 set last year by their schoolmates.

Central Connecticut State was second in 1:34.02 minutes, and Long Island University was third in 1:34.56.

There was also a meet record for Vickles and teammates Posada, Napier and Nwaeze en route to a third relay gold medal in the 400-yard freestyle in three minutes, 22.45 seconds, which was well ahead of Wagner College’s 2024 top time of 3:22.96.

Central Connecticut State again ended in the second spot in 3:26.17 with Wagner College, third in 3:26.97.

Individually, Vickles had a fifth-place finish in the women’s 50-yard freestyle A final in 23.38 seconds and seventh in the 100-yard freestyle A final in 51.49 seconds, while in the 100-yard backstroke, she was third in the Consolation Final in 58 seconds.

At the end of the meet, after two years of knocking on the door, Howard University finally broke through and won that elusive title.

The Bison and runner-up Central Connecticut were locked in a tense battle throughout the week, with neither team’s lead jumping beyond 41 points.

However, on the final day of competition, Howard finished strong, totalling 856 points, just barely ahead of the Blue Devils, who racked up 837. Howard’s win brought an end to CCSU’s three-year title run.

Wagner took third with 407 points, while Saint Francis came in fourth with 349. LIU (334), Stonehill (299) and Le Moyne (275) rounded out the standings.