Northwestern’s swimming and diving teams opened their seasons with losses against nationally ranked Indiana squads Friday. But neither can say they got off to a bad start.
The women’s team, led by junior freestyler Kassia Shishkoff, won six events against the No. 8 Hoosiers but fell 172.5 to 127.5. On the men’s side, senior freestyler Eric Nilsson won two events in the Wildcats’ 158-129 loss to their 14th-ranked opponents.
“I think a few guys are a little bit disappointed,” said senior diver Alex Kiaie, who placed second in the 3-meter dive. “But I don’t think there are too many people too far off from where they want to be at this point.”
The women’s team, ranked 22nd heading into the meet, probably had the better day of the two teams. Shishkoff had NCAA provisional B qualifying times in the 200- and 500-yard races – winning both races – and the 400 individual medley. Her time in the 200 free was the fourth-fastest in school history. Shishkoff was also a member of the winning 400 free medley team.
Women’s coach Jimmy Tierney said before the race that one of the keys to the event was finding out what to expect from his young squad that features 11 freshmen.
Freshman Jenny Wilson showed the team’s potential by winning her first career race by .02 seconds over Indiana’s Sarah Stockwell in the 100 breast, with the fifth-fastest time in school history. Sophomore Teisha Lightbound won the 50 free by .05 seconds ahead of NU junior Emily Wong.
While the women’s team adjusts to its young roster, the men’s team must deal with the loss of several athletes, including half of its NCAA tournament contingent. With only 13 swimmers, the Cats are fielding their smallest team in several years.
But there are still some veterans on the squad, such as Nilsson, who won the 200 and 500 free. The other men’s win of the day went to sophomore Peter Park, in the 1,000 free.
Both teams, despite coming off top-20 finishes last season, were just trying to find out who they were and what they were capable of.
“For this meet, we’re really just getting into the training cycle,” said sophomore Ellen Grigg, who placed fourth in the women’s 1,000 free. “We’re just kind of looking to get out and race and get some practice doing that and sort of get started looking at the goals we can set for this season based on what we did this weekend.”
“We don’t really adjust much for the individual opponents,” Tierney added. “It’s just getting ready to race an opponent and not each other, which alone gets them excited.”
The teams feel that the most important meets do not happen in the first week of the year.
“We’re trying to pace our performance for the end of the season,” Kiaie said.
