Coach Jimmy Tierney told his swimmers before the meet against Notre Dame that if they could stay close through the last relay, they would have a chance to win.
That’s exactly what happened. The result of the meet hinged on Northwestern’s 400-yard relay team.
It came down to the final event, the 400-yard relay, and it was winner-take-all.
“We just knew we had to win the last relay,” Tierney said. “And the girls took care of it.”With a first- and third-place finish between its two relay squads, No. 23 NU edged Notre Dame with a 153-147 victory.
But the dramatic ending and tight scoreline didn’t tell the whole story. The Wildcats had been chasing the Fighting Irish since the third event and had struggled to get back in it. Down 16 points with two races left, the Cats appeared to have conceded the meet.
“I thought, ‘I’m not even sure if we’re capable of coming back,'” Tierney said. “When the diving results came in and the score was 140-124 with two events to go, I realized we had a long shot. But we switched (Kassia) Shishkoff into the 400 IM and I’m glad she was talented and tough enough to pull it off.”
Shishkoff did not expect to race the 400-yard IM-she had played her part with first place finishes in the 200- and 500-yard freestyles. Tierney said the mid-distance freestyle specialist “responded beautifully” to the challenge.
“I was pretty nervous going into it. I found out I’d be in five minutes before the race,” Shishkoff said. “I was nervous about whether I could win it but clearly, we got first, second, third and fourth, so we have pretty good IM.”
The top four finishes in the event handed NU 16 points and put them in a position to win the meet. Like the win over Wisconsin earlier this season during which NU trailed the Badgers heading into the final three events, the Cats turned the Notre Dame meet on its head with a late surge.
The comeback began halfway through the meet. Twenty points behind Notre Dame, the Cats had won just one of the first eight events. But starting with the win in the 100-yard freestyle, NU won five of the remaining eight events.
“Emily (Wong) turned it back and won the 100 free and that got us started,” Tierney said. Wong had placed second in the 50-yard freestyle to Notre Dame’s Amywren Miller, who holds the school record for the race. But when the 100-yard freestyle came, Tierney said he had no doubt who would emerge victorious.
“After the 50, I could see in (Wong’s) face she wanted to do well,” he said. “I thought when she got to 100, (placing second) wouldn’t happen again. I felt she’s the better swimmer and she’d take charge of the race. But the next race was key.”
In that race, co-captain Genny Szymanski had her best performance of the year on the 200-yard backstroke, recording a winning time of 2:01.21.
The trajectory of her season parallels the team’s performance against Notre Dame-struggling to get going at first but peaking toward the end.
“It’s been a rough start (for me) this season,” Szymanski said. “(But) it was really exciting that we could make a comeback like that.”[email protected]
