Rowan women’s swimming took third place at the 2025 New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) Championships, finishing the four-day long tournament at the Hampton Aquaplex in Hampton, Virginia, with 962 points. The team’s third-place finish improves upon their 2024 NJAC Championships performance which saw them finish fourth and accumulate only 947 points.

The Profs finished 65.5 points ahead of fourth-place Montclair State (782.5) and fell short of runner-up Mary Washington (1394.5). Salisbury won the NJAC title with 1,419 points.

“I feel like it was just an excellent showing of how much work the team has put in this year. We had the energy, we had the races, and everyone showed up,” Pennington said. “There wasn’t a single bad race and everyone put their best swim forward and it was just amazing to watch.”

Both Ella Pennington and Kaitlyn Crouthamel came out on top as NJAC champions in their respective events.

Pennington captured the 200 back (1:58.59) while breaking her own school record and Crouthamel won the 1650 free (17:28.47) with her best time of the season. 

Both were also a part of the third-place finishing 400 free relay along with Barbara Mora and Laura Jones (3:31.00) that set a new program record.

“It’s always more fun to do it [break records] with other people. When the last person touches the wall and three sets of hands go up and the person in the water turns around to see if we got the time, that part is always so much fun,” Pennington said. “Celebrating with everyone and knowing that we can put up something that shows our program keeps getting better, that’s just really fun.”

Freshman Lilyanna Martin once again captured a new program record in the 200 fly (2:07.75), breaking her own mark that she set back in November at the Franklin & Marshall Invitational in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Martin also swam in the 800 free relay along with Crouthamel, Trish Lau, and Pennington, broke a school record with a time of 7:39.72, and bettered the three-year mark of 7:45.24.

“They show up eager every day and they’ve been awesome rookies,” said head coach Elise Fisher on Martin and the other freshman swimmers. “It’s rubbing off on all the other rookies as well.”

With NJACs concluding, Profs like Pennington will wait to hear if they get invited to the NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving Championships, beginning March 19, at the Greensboro Aquatic Complex in Greensboro, North Carolina. A back-to-back second-team All-American in the 200 back, Pennington will look to continue her success if she makes the championship meet this time around.

 “Just putting my head down and showing up to practice,” Pennington said. “I think with a lot of effort from the coaches and help from my teammates it is definitely gonna help.” 

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