Artistic Swimming | 4/1/2025 12:12:00 PM

YPSILANTI, Mich. (April 1, 2025) – For the fourth straight season, the Texas Woman's artistic swimming team finished in the top four at U.S. Collegiate Nationals.

On March 28-29, the Pioneers traveled to Michigan and competed in elements, solo, trio and team competition. At the conclusion of the events, the Pioneers finished with an overall team score of 66 to place fourth.

The Collegiate Nationals started off with the elements competition on Friday, March 28. In the A Elements, six Pioneers placed in the Top 20. Maya Schwickert topped the Pioneers' leaderboard in 10th, receiving the highest placement in Collegiate A Elements in program history. For the Pioneers freshmen in A Figures, Jennah Hafsi placed 11th, Kendyl Egert finished 13th and Melanie Tromp recorded a 14th place finish. Junior Candela Fidalgo Garcia recorded her highest career placement, finishing 15th. Sophomore Maria Fernández-Montenegro Serrano also recorded the highest finish of her career in 18th.

In B Elements, freshman Maya Bell made history by recording the highest finish in program history, placing second in the event. Freshman Anastasia Bell also had a great Collegiate Nationals debut and placed seventh. The Pioneers recorded the highest team average in this event to claim the win in B Elements.

TWU shone in the solo competition. For the second straight year, Schwickert placed third in the event. In her first Collegiate Nationals Eva Lafontan finished in fifth place, marking the second straight year the Pioneers have posted two top five finishes in the solo category. Both routines were basemark-free swims, which were the best swims of the season for Schwickert and Lafontan.

In the trio event, the Pioneers got the crowd rocking with the Pianos routine, featuring Schwickert, Fernández-Montenegro Serrano and Lisa Kizis. The Pianos, a definite crowd favorite, finished in fifth place, as TWU beat a University of the Incarnate Word trio and The Ohio State University trio. The swim was a basemark-free and best swim of the season.

The Pioneers had two teams compete in the team competition. Both teams – Minerva and Oakley – placed in the Top 10 and swam basemark-free routines, which were best swims of the season. Team Minerva – Fidalgo Garcia, Hafsi, Kizis, Lafontan, Ashley Latchford, Schwickert and Tromp – placed seventh. Team Oakley – Anastasia Bell, Maya Bell, Egert, Maribella Falconer, Fernández-Montenegro Serrano, Laura Klein Paredes and Kimberly Poitras – placed eighth.

Stanford claimed the overall win, UIW finished second and OSU placed third.

"On our team, we fully understand the nature of our sport as non-contact — meaning we have no control over what our competitors bring to the pool in terms of difficulty or scoring potential," said TWU Artistic Swimming Head Coach Barb Nesbitt Ng. "What we can control is our work ethic, the standard we hold ourselves to, and the quality we deliver every time we dive into the pool. For us, success isn't just about results on paper—it's about pioneering something meaningful and special within the sport. This season, we did exactly that. In a sport where perfection is often seen as the unreachable ideal, we were the only program at the U.S. Collegiate National Championship to complete every routine with a 100% pass rate of our declared difficulty. To me, that is the perfect competition, and I could not be prouder."