Swimming and Diving Closes Big Tens with Podium Finish, School Record, Seven More Finalists

Saturday, February 21

Minneapolis, Minn.

11:00 AM

Rutgers University

Big Ten Championships

Photo by: Craig Lassig

Swimming and Diving Closes Big Tens with Podium Finish, School Record, Seven More Finalists

Feb 21 | Women's Swimming & Diving

Full Meet Results

Sephora Ford Finishes 6th in Platform Diving, Anna Vlachou Has School Record in 100 Freestyle

MINNEAPOLIS – Rutgers swimming and diving wrapped up four full days of competition at the Big Ten Championships on Saturday. The action on Saturday saw the most competitors advance to finals, as five swimmers and two divers moved onto the finals at night. Rutgers had another podium finish, with diver Sephora Ford placing sixth in the platform dive, with swimmer Anna Vlachou set a school record with her B Final finish in the 100 Freestyle. Rutgers set another school record (Anna Vlachou in the 100 Free, who also had an NCAA Qualifying time) and had two more top-10 times in program history.

Overall throughout the event, Rutgers had six podium finishes, five in diving and one swimmer. As a team, Rutgers scored 379.5 team points. RU placed 11^th out of 14 teams, finishing ahead of Iowa, Penn State and Illinois.

Rutgers six podium finishes were the most since 2023. Not including relays, RU's six individual podium spots were the most since 2019. Rutgers' five podium spots in diving alone marked the most top-8 finishes in a single Big Tens for the diving program since joining the league.

On Saturday, Sephora Ford was RU's top qualifier, reaching the finals on platform diving with a 289.30 in prelims. In the finals, she scored a 256.90 and finished sixth.

Fellow diver Katerina Hoffman reached the consolation finals in platform diving. She scored a 229.25 in finals after a 241.15 in prelims, and finished 13^th.

On the swimming side, RU had two B finals and three C finals. Anna Vlachou excelled in the 100 Free. She swam a school record time of 48.73 in the morning prelims, finishing 15^th in prelims to reach the B final. She then bettered her time at night to break her own school record, touching the wall in 48.53 for a NCAA Qualifying time and a 12^th place finish overall.

The other B finalist on Saturday was Angelica Bath in the 200 Backstroke. She swam a 1:55.95 in prelims, the sixth time in school history, reaching the B Finals with a 13^th place finish in the preliminary. At night she raced a 1:57.61 to finish 15^th overall.

In the 200 IM, Ana Hazlehurst swam the prelim in 1:59.81. That time was the second fastest time in school history and good for 18^th in the prelims, placing her in the C final, where she bettered her second fastest in RU history time with a 1:59.33 to finish 18^th overall.

Rutgers also had two swimmers in the 200 Butterfly reach the C final. Blanka Berecz finished in 22^nd, while Ana Hazlehurst finished in 24^th.

Also at night, distance swimmer Megan Fox placed 22^nd in the 1650 free with a time of 16:52.21.

Rutgers Podium Finishes in the 2026 Big Ten Championships
6th: Sephora Ford, Platform
7^th: Katerina Hoffman, 3M Dive
7^th: Bailee Sturgill: 1M Dive
8^th: Sephora Ford, 3M Dive
8^th: Katerina Hoffman: 1M Dive
8^th: Anna Vlachou: 100 Butterfly