The Title Lap

Fairfield Swimming & Diving: One Program, Two Champion Teams.

For the first time in the history of the Fairfield University Swimming & Diving program, the Stags returned from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Championship Meet with conference titles for both the men’s and women’s teams.

For the women, the victory this past February marked a return to form—the Stags have now won five of the last eight conference crowns. The men’s team reached the pinnacle on a more gradual trajectory, breaking through for the first time in 2026 after four consecutive top-four finishes, including a painfully narrow setback in the 2025 edition of the championship.

Both can now proudly call themselves MAAC Champions—but the men’s and women’s teams within Fairfield Swimming & Diving share far more than a title. Each squad is led by Head Coach Jake Lichter and his staff: diving coach Devon O’Nalty and assistant coaches Emma Brown and Jeff Vlass ’25. They share near-identical practice times and meet schedules, endure the same physical and mental rigors of the hours in the pool, the weight room, and on the training table, and enjoy a shared camaraderie on the road, in training, and in their daily life as Fairfield student-athletes.

That unity carried them through a coaching change entering the fall of 2024 when Head Coach Jacy Dyer moved on to the head coaching position at the University of Toledo—her alma mater—and Coach Lichter and his staff took the reins. Remarkably, especially in the current era of college athletics, that regime change did not see a single men’s or women’s team member leave the program to compete elsewhere.

“As dedicated as we all are to our sport, I think most of all, it was just that we all enjoy Fairfield,” said Callie Gray ’26, a member of the 2023 and the 2026 women’s MAAC Champion teams and a four-time career medalist at MAAC conference meets. “We love this University and all that it has to offer, and I think no one really wanted to separate from the school or from one another. We felt like if this change was going to happen, at least I have my teammates on the women’s and men’s sides, I have my best friends, and we will support one another.”

When a full roster returned for the 2024-25 season, Coach Lichter was quick to acknowledge that Fairfield was far from a rebuild—the women were only a season removed from their most recent MAAC Championship, and the men’s progression within the conference was clearly well underway. His challenge as the new head coach was not to start over but to take both programs higher.

“I tell every recruit and everybody who joins our program, that we are centered around three pillars: we’re hardworking, we’re competitive, and we have fun,” said Coach Lichter. “To be honest, it makes my job a whole lot easier to recruit on those pillars here at Fairfield. I think if you talk to your average Fairfield student—swimmer or other student-athlete or not—you’ll find that they’re hardworking and competitive, and they have fun.”

“The coaching change was something unexpected, but Jake came in, showed his hunger right away,” said Aidan Schnapf ’26, a men’s team captain for the 2025-26 season. “Words are just words and actions speak louder, and right away we saw a change in the culture with Jake. He draws us closer together every single day.”

Coach Lichter’s first season in 2024-25 showed clear progress. Both teams won five dual meets and entered the MAAC Championships with legitimate title aspirations. But neither reached the top of the podium: the women finished second, while the men fell to third after entering the final day within striking distance.

Rather than define the program, those disappointments helped reshape it.

“That experience gave us a new approach going into this past year. Our message was that we do so much good stuff all year long, that your worth does not hinge on the outcome of one meet,” said Coach Lichter. “If we win, we win. If we lose, we win. I think that allowed them to really swim free and just race to win versus racing to not lose.”

If we win, we win. If we lose, we win.

The phrase may feel counterintuitive, jarring, or just plain wrong to athletes, coaches, and fans of all sports. But for the Fairfield Swimming & Diving program, it was just a new way to do what they had always done: work hard, compete, and have fun. And 12 months later, the men’s and women’s teams both found themselves back in a familiar place—standing on the pool deck at the MAAC Championships with one day to go and a championship within reach.

This time around, the Fairfield men’s team finished the job. The Stags grabbed first place on the second day and never relinquished the lead, closing out second-place Marist by more than 60 points to secure the first MAAC Championship in program history.

“In 2025, we found ourselves in a tight meet without expecting it and without having been in that position before,” said Schnapf, who was the Stags’ top scorer and a four-time medalist at the 2026 meet, including an individual MAAC Championship in the 200y Freestyle. “But we knew all season that we had the team to do it this year, and it was just going to be about every person doing their piece of the puzzle. We knew that we had the guys and that we could trust each other.”

“I don’t even have the words for how proud I was and just how incredible it was to see them win,” said Gray. “From the start of the year, they put it out there and didn’t shy away from it: their goal was to win it. It was just the best feeling to see them celebrate and see them so happy, because they absolutely deserved it, not just for this year but some of them for three or four years of grinding.”

For the women, the program’s return to the top step of the podium came with much more of a flourish. The Stags entered the final day in second place, staring down a manageable but daunting 34-point deficit to Marist and with the defending champs from Niagara nipping at their heels in third.

Fairfield hit the water fast on Championship Saturday with a gold medal swim from Natasha De Pree ’29, who would later be tabbed as MAAC Rookie Swimmer of the Meet. That performance marked the Stags’ ninth and final gold medal of the day, but the Stags added four more top-three finishes to fuel the scoring efforts.

The women entered into the final race of the day with a slim lead but with the title still up for grabs. That race—the 400y Freestyle Relay—saw Holly Rahurahu ’26 as the anchor touch the wall just 0.16 seconds ahead of Marist to claim a silver medal and bring the women’s trophy back to North Benson Road. “It was kind of cooler than ours in the way that they did it,” Schnapf admitted. “Coming down to the last relay and being able to watch while knowing exactly what needed to be done. It’s probably my favorite race I’ve seen live, even including my own.”

Hard working. Competitive. Fun. And a bond that turned two teams into one—with two MAAC Championships to celebrate.

“I wish I could, but I don’t attribute it to me. It’s the culture that existed in the program that maybe we helped bring out a bit. But they already had the idea of what hard work was and what it meant to be a team,” said Coach Lichter, who was recognized by his peers this season as both the men’s and women’s MAAC Coach of the Year. “And I think we owe an incredible amount of that to Fairfield. They came into this place, they found their best friends, they loved the school, and they became a family.”

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