Northwestern traveled to Ann Arbor, Mich., on Saturday to face Michigan in its last road dual meet of the season. The team was prepped and ready for the attack from the No. 13 Wolverines, but ultimately the Wolverines prevailed, beating the Wildcats 152-134.
“The competition was certainly what we can expect from Michigan,” coach Jimmy Tierney said. “Certainly year-in and year-out they’re always one of the top two or three teams in the Big Ten.”
The Cats opened up the meet with a second-place performance in the 200 medley relay, followed by another runner-up finish in the 1000 freestyle by sophomore Kassia Shishkoff and a third-place showing in the 200 freestyle by senior Andrea Hupman.
Despite the strong finishes, Tierney was not impressed by the Cats’ start in the meet.
“We just got off to a little bit of a slow start, and got ourselves behind,” he said. “We certainly came back a bit, but I’m a little bit disappointed with how the beginning went … like the 200 medley relay – I thought we could be a little bit closer to them in that.”
As the meet progressed, the team picked up speed, led by the sprinters, who Tierney said “did a good job.” In the 50 freestyle, the girls won four of the top five places, and in the 100 freestyle, they won three of the top five.
According to Tierney, Shishkoff had the best overall performance on the team. She came in second to the Wolverines’ Emily Brunemann in the 1000 freestyle but came from behind to beat Brunemann and win the 500 freestyle.
“It was a great meet for (Shishkoff); she did a very good job,” Tierney said.
In her final event of the meet, Shishkoff placed second in the 200 individual medley.
Sophomore Emily Wong also had a good meet, winning the 50 freestyle and finishing a close second in the 100 freestyle.
“It was probably (Wong’s) best meet in a couple of months, so it’s nice to see her back,” Tierney said of the sophomore. “I think she is getting back closer to full health and getting stronger.”
Wong also swam a strong split on last relay of the meet, the 400 freestyle relay.
Tierney praised the swimming of senior Katie Braun, who won the 100 butterfly and added a runner-up finish in the 200 butterfly.
“She had a couple of pretty close races, because she was going against one of the top swimmers in the Big Ten conference in those events,” Tierney said. “She got a little bit better as she went along, but she just fell a little bit short of upsetting their girl.”
The Cats next play Saturday against Ohio State in their last dual meet of the season. Following the meet, the team has a four-week layoff before the Big Ten Championships in February.
“(The girls) certainly finished the meet off well, but they were just a little bit flatter at the beginning of the meet than I thought,” Tierney said. “Hopefully, being back home this weekend against Ohio State will be a little bit better to finish off our dual meet season and get us ready for Big Tens.”
Reach Bette Marston at [email protected].
