Junior Kelsie Miller claimed victories in the 200-yard butterfly and 100-yard butterfly Friday night as the St. Mary’s College of Maryland women’s swimming team launched its 2025-26 season with a 193-69 nonconference defeat to host Randolph-Macon College. The meet at the Tyler J. Parrish Memorial Natatorium marked the Yellow Jackets’ home opener and dropped the Seahawks to 0-1 overall.
Miller, from Potomac, Md., and Winston Churchill High School, touched first in the 200 butterfly at 2:17.96 and followed with a winning time of 1:00.19 in the 100 butterfly. Her performances provided the team’s only individual triumphs in the 16-event program. Junior Emerson Young of Bel Air, Md., and Harford Technical High School added a first-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle at 25.47 seconds while placing third in the 200 freestyle at 2:05.05.
The St. Mary’s 200-yard freestyle relay team of Young, sophomore Addison Willey from Lexington Park, Md., and Great Mills High School, Miller, and senior captain Venus Kai Judge of Gaithersburg, Md., and Quince Orchard High School earned second place at 1:44.04. Judge contributed three third-place finishes across distance events, clocking 11:45.31 in the 1000-yard freestyle, 5:47.30 in the 500-yard freestyle, and 5:15.05 in the 400-yard individual medley.
In the 200-yard medley relay, Miller, Young, sophomore Jesse Slingluff from Crownsville, Md., and Old Mill High School, and Willey finished fourth at 2:00.13. First-year Lily Quill, a Severna Park, Md., and Severna Park High School product making her collegiate debut, placed fourth in both the 100-yard backstroke at 1:10.77 and the 200-yard backstroke at 2:33.96.
Sophomore Ella Malzahn from Durham, N.C., and Jordan High School took fourth in the 100-yard breaststroke at 1:21.13. Sophomore Mandy Cartwright, representing Waldorf, Md., and Thomas Stone High School, secured fourth in the 100-yard freestyle at 59.64. Junior Natalie Canham from Berlin, Md., and Stephen Decatur High School rounded out the fourth-place efforts with a 2:56.89 in the 200-yard breaststroke.
Randolph-Macon swept 13 of 16 events and improved to 1-0-1. Standouts included Reese Painter, who won the 200 freestyle in 2:01.26, the 50 freestyle in 25.18, and the 200 backstroke in 2:14.80. Sophia Hanson captured the 100 breaststroke at 1:11.19 and the 200 breaststroke at 2:34.29. Caroline Russell took the 500 freestyle in 5:44.58, while Kierra Parsons led the 1000 freestyle at 11:11.47. The Yellow Jackets’ 200 medley relay won in 1:55.31, led by Kelsey James, Hanson, Sophie Sullivan, and Cayden Fix.
St. Mary’s, competing in the Atlantic East Conference, enters the new campaign off a dominant 2024-25 season that saw the Seahawks claim their first conference title since 2007. At the Atlantic East Championships in February 2025 at Catholic University, St. Mary’s amassed 568 points to outpace Marymount University by 120. Emerson Young won the 100 freestyle in 54.19, and Kelsie Miller topped the 200 butterfly at 2:09.84, both earning All-Conference honors. The team broke three school records and qualified two relays for the NCAA Division III Championships in Greensboro, N.C., from March 19-22.
Head coach Casey Brandt, a La Plata native who took over the program in June 2016, guided the dual men’s and women’s teams to that breakthrough. Brandt, who also serves as aquatics director, previously coached at the Charles County Aquatic Club and helped develop local talent through youth programs. Under his leadership, St. Mary’s has emphasized distance training and relay cohesion, key factors in Friday’s competitive showings despite the lopsided score. The program trains at the Michael P. O’Brien Athletics and Recreation Center on campus in St. Mary’s City, featuring an eight-lane, 50-meter Olympic-size pool with 300 seats that hosts county recreation alongside college meets.
The 193-69 margin reflects Randolph-Macon’s depth in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, where the Yellow Jackets posted top-10 times in multiple events entering the season. For St. Mary’s, the opener calibrates early adjustments before a schedule heavy on Virginia road trips. Dual meets like this one, though decisive losses, inform training cycles leading to the February 2026 Atlantic East Championships.
Saturday brings a tri-meet at Randolph College in Lynchburg, Va., at the Bateman Aquatic Center starting at 1 p.m. The Seahawks face Randolph (3-0) and Virginia Wesleyan (1-0), providing matchups against conference and regional programs. With returning stars like Miller and Judge alongside freshmen such as Quill, St. Mary’s builds toward defending its title in a sport where seconds dictate standings.
