The Liberty League Championship Tournament returned to the South Hill on Feb. 19-22 with high expectations for each school. Several team and association records were shattered on the way to crowning the 2025 Liberty League Champions: the Ithaca College women’s team and the Rochester Institute of Technology’s men’s team.

The four-day championship meet welcomed nine schools: Bard College Raptors, Clarkson University Golden Knights, Hobart and William Smith College Statesmen and Herons, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Engineers, Rochester Institute of Technology Tigers, Skidmore College Thoroughbreds, St. Lawrence University Saints, Union College Garnet Chargers and the Vassar College Brewers.

Combined, the Bombers men’s and women’s teams broke three Liberty League championship records, highlighting a week of strong individual and team performances. The women’s team pulled away from the Engineers while the Tigers held on to defeat the men’s team for the fourth straight year.

Day One

Both teams led the meet after the first session Feb. 19. The men’s team held a slim margin for first place over RPI with 461 points, while the women’s team tallied 349 points to lead over RIT’s 307 points.

Junior Ryan Cooke led the men’s team into action. Cooke, the defending Liberty League Champion in the 500-yard freestyle, earned the team’s first individual win of the meet with a time of 4:32.32. He also broke the Liberty League record from 2019. Upon touching the wall, the Kelsey Partridge Bird Natatorium exploded with cheers, from the fans to his teammates.

Junior Matthew Janssen also joined in on the scoring action. Janssen finished fifth in the 200-yard individual medley, swimming a time of 1:54.77. After watching many of his teammates swim their personal best or season-best performances, he said the times serve as extra motivation for a team that is hungry for a championship following a second-place finish the last four seasons.

“That’s what we’re all about,” Janssen said. “We just want to be better than we were last year. We have young guys who [we have] seen how they’ve done this year and they’ll try to do [even] better next year.”

For the women’s team, sophomore Kathleen Papiernik clinched the win in the 200-yard individual medley, touching the wall with a time of 2:06.10, beating out the defending champion from the Engineers, senior Shannon Brown.

Day Two

More records were broken by the women’s team on day two, both on the boards and in the pool.

Diving

Senior Kailee Payne, the defending Division III National Champion in the 1- and 3-meter dives, continued her dominant season by winning both events. Payne reset her own championship record in the 1-meter dive from a year ago with a score in the finals of 553.65 for 11 dives, ranking her third in the nation.

Swimming

Papiernik also hopped on the team’s championship record-breaking train in the 100-yard butterfly. Papiernik won her second straight league title in the event, touching the wall at 55:70, bringing the crowd to its feet.

Papiernik also earned an NCAA B-Cut time with her league-winning swim. She said self-confidence pushed her through the wall to repeat as the event’s champion and set the new record.

“I knew it was the last time I was swimming this season and I wanted to give it all I had,” Papiernik said. “I think that was what got me to where I am.”

Day Three

Going into day three, the women’s team had a comfortable lead for first place, while the men’s team was in a close battle with the Tigers, the defending Liberty League Champions for men’s swimming and diving.

Both Bombers squads placed several athletes on the podium, but the highlight of the night was the women’s 4×800-yard freestyle relay. Junior Naomi Fry, Papiernik, junior Ava Palfreyman and sophomore Samantha Bender ran away with the win over Vassar by about five seconds, swimming a time of 7:40.65 as well as earning the team an important 64 points to build upon its lead.

Day Four

On the fourth and final day, the finals began with a tribute to all of the Liberty League’s graduating seniors. The emotional tribute soon turned over to an exciting 1,650-yard freestyle.

The Tigers’ first-year swimmer Josh Berty broke the Liberty League Championship record with a time of 15:57.71. Senior Matthew Stevens and sophomore James Kissel were side-by-side at the wall to earn second and third place, respectively, garnering huge team points for the Bombers to draw closer to the Tigers, but it was not enough to steal first place.

Despite falling short at the hands of the Tigers, Head coach Mike Blakely-Armitage said it was a year to rebuild for the men’s team, but that the athletes and coaches came away with several positive takeaways.

“[There is] a lot of confidence for what they have next year,” Blakely-Armitage said. “They’re going to be [hungrier] for next year. Big time.”

As for the women’s team, the South Hill squad captured its sixth consecutive Liberty League Championship. With that, diving coach Chris Griffin celebrated by making his annual plunge off the 3-meter board.

“I love seeing it every year,” Blakely-Armitage said. “It’s great that he’s so energetic, and I love coaching with him. He’s one of the best diving coaches in the country and having him on our staff is just phenomenal.”

The divers for both teams return to action at 2 p.m. Feb. 28 with the NCAA Diving Regionals at the Kelsey Partridge Bird Natatorium. After the competition, the Bombers will send the athletes who have individually hit the NCAA standards to the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championship on March 19 in Greensboro, Nor

th Carolina.