Swimming and Diving

Northwestern hosted and beat both Oakland and Illinois-Chicago by​ ​180-111 and 211-86 on Saturday in the Wildcats’ second meet of the season.

Sophomore Ellen Stello placed first in the 200 fly, 500 free and 200 individual medley competitions, contributing to the tri-meet win.

​“For the second week in a row, Ellen Stello was outstanding,” coach Jimmy Tierney said. “She’s swimming close to lifetime best times which is tough to do at this time of the year, and it is a result of her hard work and her training. She’s doing a great job day to day and it’s paying off.”

Tierney also noted strong performances from freshmen, such as freestyler Anna Keane and fly and freestyler Maddy Sims, who placed second in the 200 fly and 200 medley relay.

“It’s really exciting to have such a great start to the season,” Stello said. “It’s awesome looking ahead and to think about everything that we can accomplish as a team and I can contribute to the team.”

Despite the win, Tierney still sees where the team needs improvement.

“There are some things here that everyone has to work on, like how we’re getting beat on some starts and turns,” he said. “Things like that have to get better if we’re going to compete at a high level, but we’re making progress, and it’s good, but we got a ways to go.”

The Cats have a bye week and then will head to Lexington to face Kentucky, Missouri and Southern Illinois.

“We’re going to put in a week and half of really hard work and then go down to Lexington, Kentucky to challenge some really good SEC schools,” Tierney said. “So we’re excited, and I think our girls will be really pumped up to go on the road and see what we can do against a good group of talented teams.”

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