Slow and steady wins the race, as the adage goes.
At the NCAA Division I Championships in Federal Way, Wash., junior freestyle/individual medley specialist Anna Moehn and junior freestyle specialist Sydney Bergstrom had strong showings over the rainy weekend, with Moehn racing three events over the weekend and Bergstrom starting strong in her NCAA debut.
In her second appearance on the national stage, Moehn showed marked improvement compared to her sophomore performance. She surged ahead by 12 places and cut nearly 12 seconds in the 1650-yard freestyle event, touching the wall at a career-best time of 16:03.51.
“She worked really hard last month [after Ivy Championships], did everything right, and to come out here under the most pressure that she'd ever faced, [that] was really cool,” coach Mike Schnur said.
“[Training before NCAAs] is difficult. All of your friends are done [with their season]. Everybody [is] going on spring break, and you have to keep the blinders on and focus on the meet. … It's definitely very physically and mentally challenging.” Moehn told The Daily Pennsylvanian before the championships.
In addition to the 1650-yard freestyle, the Alton, Ill. native also swam in 500-yard freestyle preliminaries — where she cut five seconds from her time at last year's NCAAs — and made her first national appearance in the 200-yard freestyle event, finishing with a time of 1:47.90 in the preliminaries.
Meanwhile, Bergstrom was not too far behind Moehn, finishing with a time of 4:47.10 in the 500 free preliminaries and 16:20.17 in the 1650 free.
Both Moehn and Bergstrom had a stellar Ivy League Championships last month, with the pair finishing second and third, respectively, in the 1650 free. The juniors’ appearances continue a four-year streak of having at least one Quaker competing in the 1650 free at the NCAAs championships — a streak that started with 2024 College graduate and All-American Anna Kalandadze in 2022.
With the women’s season winding down, the race is on for 2026, especially for the pair of distance swimmers.
“[Moehn and Bergstrom will be] seniors, so they'll start their battle to get back here [next year], you know … but having them back is great for the team and great for the younger women to follow,” Schnur said.
“Anna and Sydney were lucky enough to have Anna Kalandadze and [Catherine] Buroker before them to lay the groundwork for what they're doing now,” Schnur added. "Now it's up to them to set the tone for the younger women next year.”
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