A historic end to a historic season.
Last week, senior distance freestyle specialists Sydney Bergstrom and Anna Moehn competed at the 2026 NCAA Division I women’s swimming and diving championships at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. In the 1650-yard freestyle, Bergstrom touched the wall in 12th while Moehn was just behind in 16th to claim second-team All-American honors at the final meet of their collegiate swimming careers.
This is Bergstrom’s second appearance on the national stage. The Swarthmore, Pa. native made impressive strides this season to improve to a 12th-place finish with a time of 16:04.94 in the mile after finishing in 36th last year.
To get to NCAAs, Bergstrom dropped over five seconds for a career-best in the event to claim the crown in the 1650 free at this year’s Ivy League championships, with Moehn completing the 1-2 punch. Moehn also went on to shine at NCAAs — improving her 21st finish from 2025 to 16th in her third appearance at the championships.
With their top-16 finishes, the two join an elite group of now four swimmers in program history to earn All-American honors — the other two being their former teammates and fellow distance freestyle specialists: Anna Kalandadze and Catherine Buroker.
“I feel like [Moehn and I] both have been in this together for so long, and so it was really nice that our last mile ever, we were able to achieve something like that,” Bergstrom said.
The Quakers have a rich legacy of distance freestyle dominance. This is the seventh-straight season that at least one distance freestyle swimmer donning the Red and Blue has competed at NCAAs.
The legacy goes back beyond recent memory. 2018 College graduate Virginia Burns claimed four-straight Ivy League championships in the 500-yard free, and 2014 College graduate and 7-time Ivy League individual champion Shelby Fortin was named to Penn Athletics Hall of Fame for her winning versatility in all the freestyle events.
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Coach Mike Schnur has frequently told stories about Burns and Fortin to Moehn and Bergstrom. Now, the two seniors etch their names in history, leaving stories to be passed down to the next generation.
“To keep contributing to this legacy, I hope it inspires other people as it did to me when I first came here,” Bergstrom said, “I’m really proud to have been able to do that, especially in my last season.”
It’s been quite a journey also for Moehn, who didn’t expect to swim any distance freestyle when she came to Penn. She now leaves Sheerr Pool having medaled at Ivies in the 500 and 1650 free every season.
There’s a lot of history, specifically in the Georgia Tech pool, for the Quakers. 2016 Wharton graduate Chris Swanson claimed Penn swimming and diving’s first NCAA title in 2016 in the 1650 free.
The journey to the national championships is never easy. Bergstrom and Moehn swam without coaches during their first week of NCAA preparation as the men’s team competed at Ivies, and the rest of the team either completed their season or was competing at the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships.
For the rest of their training, which included spring break, the NCAA training group grew to include sophomore breaststroke specialist Watson Nguyen and junior individual medley specialist Peter Whittington, who are set to compete at the men’s edition of the championships this week.
Bergstrom and Moehn’s standout performances officially conclude Penn women’s swimming and diving’s season. To close out the regular season, the women set 16 new pool and five program records in a triumphant return to Sheer Pool. At Ivies in February, the team raced to second place — the highest finish in program history.
