The University of Delaware women’s swimming and diving team finished second at the Bucknell Invitational, earning a total of 1,390 points over the three-day event held in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
The competition saw two program records and two freshman records set by the Fightin’ Blue Hens on the final day. Victoria Novinskiy established both a program and pool record in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:54.65, finishing nearly five seconds ahead of her closest competitor. This marked her third program record of the weekend.
Ragazzoni led the team in the 200-yard backstroke finals, setting a new program record with a time of 1:56.90. She broke her own previous record from March at the 2025 Coastal Athletic Association Championships. Earlier in the weekend, Ragazzoni also won the A Final in the 100-backstroke.
During preliminaries on Sunday, Ragazzoni placed third in the 200-backstroke at 1:59.31 to advance to the finals. In other events, Marisa Schekenberger and Piper Price earned spots in the A Final for the 200-breaststroke after placing sixth and seventh in prelims with times of 2:18.92 and 2:19.48 respectively.
Novinskiy was dominant during preliminary rounds as well, leading by more than four seconds with a time of 1:56.05 in the 200-fly.
Elisa Spera broke a freshman record in the 1650-yard freestyle finals with a time of 16:37.91, surpassing Cortney Barry’s mark from 2008. Aleksandra Dimitrova recorded her second freshman record of the weekend by winning the B Final in that event with a time of 1:59.75.
In other races, Olivia Willemsen finished sixth in the 100-free (50.85), while Naia Legarda took third place in that event’s B Final (50.94). Schenkenberger and Price improved their standings to finish fifth (2:17.59) and sixth (2:18.20) respectively in the finals for the 200-breaststroke.
Erin Richards secured first place in the B Final and ranked fifth overall for her performance in the 200-fly (2:02.79).
To conclude competition, Ragazzoni, Legarda, Willemsen, and Judy Liu placed third in the final race—the 400-free relay—with a combined time of 3:22.61.
Selected athletes from Delaware will next compete at the U.S. Open scheduled for December 3-6 in Austin, Texas.
“Victoria Novinskiy set the program and pool record in the 200-fly, marking her third program record of the weekend. She finished at 1:54.65, almost five seconds ahead of the rest of the field.”
“Ragazzoni dominated the 200-back finals, setting a program record at 1:56.90, breaking the record she set back in March at the 2025 Coastal Athletic Association Championships.”
“Elisa Spera set the freshman record at 16:37.91 in the 1650-free finals, breaking a record set by Cortney Barry in 2008.”
“The fifth-fastest time in that event went to champion of B Final Aleksandra Dimitrova who broke her second freshman record of weekend at 1:59.75.”
