Northwestern topped the scoreboards against Wyoming and Illinois-Chicago, sweeping its dual meet Saturday. The team defeated Wyoming 159-141 and UIC 210-86.
However, computer glitches with the scoreboard meant the results had to be tallied by hand.
In fact, NU swimmers didn’t know the final score until they were riding home on the bus, freshman Annika Winsnes said.
“At first they told me we had lost,” the freestyler said.
Freshman Ellen Stello said it was a complete relief to hear otherwise. She remarked that the team members really came together in the last couple of events, giving it everything they had.
“It was a pride thing,” Stello added. “We wanted to win.”
Coach Jimmy Tierney said he was proud the Wildcats turned the meet around to beat the Cowgirls, even with the technological difficulties.
“We really ended up having some good times after we realized we were in a pretty good fight with Wyoming,” he said.
In the last event, senior Becca Soderholm and Stello put the finishing touches on the successful meet, placing first and second in the 400 IM, respectively.
Yet, NU did not take down its competitive conference opponents Purdue and Ohio State on Friday.
Tierney still said the team put up a good fight against the high-ranking Big Ten teams.
“This was one of those meets where the score wasn’t an indicator of how we swam,” he said.
The most important thing for the Cats is to learn from the experience of swimming against opponents like the Boilermakers and the Buckeyes, Tierney said.
Stello expressed the same sentiment. She said especially when it faces tough conference teams, “the team can see where its weaknesses are.”
Freshmen Lacey Locke and Lauren Abruzzo proved a team loss does not always indicate individual swimmers performed poorly.
In fact, the two swimmers both posted season-best times in the 200-yard backstroke and 1,000-yard freestyle, respectively.
Winsnes, who swims sprint freestyle, said Purdue and Ohio State “were simply on a higher level than other teams NU has swam against so far.”
She said the win over the Cowgirls and the Flames was a sign the Cats know how to put their heads down and keep going.
Stello said the feeling on the bus ride home was optimistic after Saturday’s meet, and that is what was important.
“It got us really pumped for Wisconsin,” she added.
The Cats will face the Badgers Friday at the Henry Crown Sports Pavilion.
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Twitter: @kendra_mayer
