Women’s Swimming

Although there are only two seniors for Northwestern (5-4, 1-2 Big Ten) this year, the upcoming annual senior day will still be an emotional one for the Wildcats.

“They’ve added a lot, not just their swimming, but their energy, their spirit,” coach Jimmy Tierney said.

The Cats will honor Madeline Klichowski and Valerie Nubbe when they take on the Milwaukee Panthers at the Norris Aquatics Center on Friday for the last home meet of the season.

Coming off of a win against Notre Dame last week, NU is in high spirits going into competition this weekend.

The Cats needed a fierce second half rally against the Fighting Irish to pull off the victory, but they got the job done by slowly decreasing the deficit and pouncing in the final event. It wasn’t the seniors, but sophomores Lacey Locke and Lauren Abruzzo who stepped up with big races down the stretch.

Milwaukee (3-2, 2-1 Horizon League) won’t be as formidable an opponent as Notre Dame (4-7), or No. 8 Michigan (7-2, 5-0 Big Ten) for that matter, but Tierney isn’t worried there will be a letdown in this meet or going forward.

“The team is feeling really good about themselves. There’s a lot of energy, a lot of excitement and a building of confidence,” Tierney said. “I think that’s starting to come out each meet that we swim. Hopefully if we continue that, we will continue to perform well.”

The Cats will focus on relay teams, an important component for Big Ten Championships.

“One thing we’re doing is we’re going to have our main guns on both our relays because I want to get them ready for Big Tens, get them used to each other,” Tierney said. “Relay exchanges are important for the athletes to get comfortable with the person they’re going off of. You don’t know 100 percent for sure who our relay performers will be at Big Tens, but still it’s important for us to get them together and gain confidence.”

Big Tens are still more than a month away, but it is never too early to prepare for those competitions.

Tierney said that although he doesn’t have enough seniors to do a senior relay, he will still feature them in their main events.

“They’re both swimming out of relays and we’ll certainly make a big deal out of them for sure because it’s a special day for them,” Tierney said. “We want to recognize them and honor them for all they’ve done for us.”

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