Swimming and Diving

Northwestern returns to the Norris Aquatics Center this weekend to face Iowa in the first of a stretch of home meets leading into the Big Ten Championships.

The Wildcats are coming off a tight loss at Notre Dame last weekend, 156.5-143.5. NU and the Fighting Irish both won eight events at the meet, but Notre Dame’s stronger performance lower on the depth chart powered their slim margin of victory.

“Iowa is a really good matchup; it should be another really close meet,” said coach Abby Steketee. “Last week was a really close meet, two-tenths (of a second) here, two-tenths (of a second) there makes the difference. We want the two-tenths on our side this weekend.”

Last year when the teams met, the Cats just barely managed to defeat the then-No. 21 Hawkeyes in Iowa City. NU traveled to the meet without any of their divers, meaning they were already down 32 points before the meet began.

Despite giving Iowa a major advantage from the start, the Cats managed to carry a one point lead into the meet’s final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay. NU won that race behind a powerful anchor leg from junior Annika Winsnes, giving the Cats a convincing three-second win in the event and 10-point win in the meet overall.

“Last year was really competitive,” said junior Megan Purdy, recalling the final race from last year’s competition. “I’m looking forward to another great meet this weekend.”

This year, the Cats will have their full complement of divers, including Olivia Rosendahl who won her third Big Ten Freshman of the Week award Wednesday. Rosendahl was recognized for her performance against Notre Dame, where she won both springboard events with NCAA Zone qualifying marks.

Iowa is coming off a comfortable win last weekend against Illinois, 174.5-125.5, where the Hawkeyes won 11 of 16 events. Although they put up impressive times against Illinois, the Cats do not seem worried about their opponents.

“On paper they’re a little better than us in the breaststroke, fly and sprint free,” acknowledged Steketee. “But the team will definitely be ready.”

This weekend’s meet will also serve as the senior recognition meet for the team. NU will recognize its five seniors before the meet begins: Ellen Anderson, Julianne Kurke, Emily Launer, Julia Pratt and Chelsea Soderholm.

Their teammates have put together little gifts for the seniors, and their parents will be in attendance. The swimmers would not say what they planned to give the seniors, although Steketee said the gifts would be “purple-themed.”

“(The senior recognition meet) is always fun for the seniors,” said junior captain Lacey Locke, adding that this meet should be a particularly exciting competition based on past meets.

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