During Northwestern’s trip to the Georgia Fall Invitational from Nov. 30 through Dec. 2, the Wildcats had to deal with more than five other teams.

Some swimmers fell sick during the weekend, but NU still managed to finish third out of six teams, behind Virginia and SEC powerhouse Georgia.

NU head coach Jimmy Tierney said he was pleased with the overall results despite the team’s illnesses.

“(The sicknesses) took a little bit of steam away from us,” Tierney said. “It was just something that we weren’t obviously expecting, but it’s something you have to deal with.

“We just took it kind of as a dress rehearsal for Big Tens coming up, so it worked out fine. The girls learned a lot, and the freshman got to see the format and what they need to do.”

Despite battling their bodies, many Cats pushed through with strong showings in Athens, Ga.

Sophomore Emily Wong and senior Andrea Hupman finished fourth and sixth consecutively in the 50 freestyle on the first night of competition, while senior Katie Braun won the 100 butterfly on the second night.

The swimmers continued to train through Finals Week, and the day after exams ended, the Wildcats headed to Boca Raton, Fla., for the eight-day training trip the team makes annually.

During its time in Florida, NU also competed in a double-dual meet, sweeping the University of Denver (127-102) and host Florida Atlantic (120.5-116.5).

“It was a very good team environment, because basically we just train, eat, sleep, and hang out,” Tierney said. “I felt like the freshman did an outstanding job, and a lot of that was because of the leadership from the upperclassmen. They all just mixed in together, and it was a good trip. I wish we had it a few days longer.”

The team returned to campus just before the new year for another week of training before heading to Knoxville, Tenn., for their first meet of 2008 against Tennessee. The team lost to the ninth-ranked Volunteers, 220-131.

Tierney said he places some of the blame on himself for not recognizing his swimmers’ fatigue.

“It was really obvious that the two teams were in a different state of readiness at this meet, because at this point, we were really tired,” Tierney said.

“We had great training in the middle of the week, but by Friday we traveled down there and Saturday they were just out of gas. I put that on the coaches because we felt like we had to get the work in, and it wasn’t as much about winning the meet necessarily but just racing hard.

“However, they were a little more broken down than I expected.”

Despite the long hours of training earlier in the week, several Cats pulled through with strong swims.

Braun won the 200 butterfly by almost 2.5 seconds, earning an NCAA ‘B’ qualifying time with a time of 2:01.81. Freshman Katie Eschenburg won the 100 backstroke by .13 of a second over Tennessee’s Morgan Farrell to capture her first individual victory at NU.

Reach Bette Marston at [email protected].