In the presence of President Morton Schapiro and his family in Norris Aquatics Center, Northwestern notched two comfortable victories against Harvard and Iowa on Saturday.
“We didn’t have to sweat it out in the end, which was nice,” coach Jimmy Tierney said. “Overall it was a very good meet. They were two very competitive teams that have a lot of talent. We were excited, and we told the girls that they need to be ready to go, that both these teams would be racing us well.”
NU topped Harvard 172-127 and defeated Iowa 165.5-133.5.
The Wildcats won eight of the 14 swimming events, and one of the two diving events on Saturday. Sophomore Cosima Lenz topped the charts in the 3-meter dive with 316.25 points. The 200-yard medley relay team, consisting of seniors Meghan Cavanaugh and Jenny Wilson, junior Taylor Reynolds and freshman Rachel Kim, completed its event in a season-record time of one minute and 42.79 seconds.
Senior Hannah Points set another NU season record, touching the wall in two minutes and 1.19 seconds in the 200-yard fly. Sophomore Megan Goss set a season-best time of 10 minutes and 9.08 seconds in the 1000-yard free, only to finish second to the Hawkeyes freshman Becky Stoughton, who won all four of her events in the meet.
“The Iowa team has a really strong, all-round distance freestyler (in Stoughton), so it was somewhat expected,” Goss said.
Also undefeated in the pool was Wilson, who for the third time this season finished the 100-yard breast 0.21 seconds ahead of the NCAA provisional qualifying time of one minute and 2.98 seconds. Junior Taylor Reynolds nearly swept all four of her events as well, but Iowa topped NU in the 400-yard freestyle relay by a third of a second.
“We always want to win the last relay,” Tierney said. “It’s a kind of a team pride thing. The girls swam well. I don’t think it was our best effort by any means, but this is more motivation to keep working hard and making our relay even better.”
