Swimming and Diving

After trailing Michigan State following Friday’s events and leading by just two points entering Sunday, Northwestern pulled away from the Spartans on the final day of the TYR Invitational to win the home meet for the second straight year.

Last season, the Wildcats edged Michigan State by a mere half-point. This year, NU (3-6) won the invitational a little more easily, finishing 23 points ahead of the Spartans and more than 250 points ahead of each of the other four teams: Grand Canyon, Saint Louis, Illinois-Chicago and Truman State.

“We’ve been training day in and day out, putting in the work,” freshman DJ Hwang said. “Having a Big Ten team come and to get a win at home just shows that we’re going in the right direction as a program.”

NU recorded just one first-place finish in 25 events — from junior Ben Magliato in the 1-meter diving — but finished second in 10 other events. The Cats had multiple swimmers in the championship heat in 13 of the 17 individual races, including six of the seven events on the final day.

Junior Will Hofstadter said the size of the meet and the home-pool advantage helped the Cats.

“(The energy) makes the meet more exciting, especially for the freshmen,” Hofstadter said. “It shows them this is a big meet, it’s not just another dual meet, and having our parents there really gives us a lot of extra energy and helps us swim faster.”

Among NU’s second-place finishers were Hofstadter, who swam the 50-yard breaststroke in 25.26, senior Nick Petersen, who touched in 22.92 in the 50-yard backstroke, and freshman Jeffrey Durmer, who finished the 400-yard individual medley in 3:56.22. Hofstadter also finished second in the 100 breast with a time of 54.51.

The Cats also got second-place finishes from junior Ryan Tate in the 100-yard butterfly, Hwang in the 1650-yard freestyle and junior Justin Hanson in the 200 fly.

Durmer said the Cats were motivated swimming against Michigan State, with whom they are evenly matched.

“Seeing those gladiator caps kind of makes me mad and makes me swim faster,” Durmer said. “It’s a good competition. I like the guys, I know some guys on MSU, but I love beating them.”

After a rough start to the season, the team was pleased with its weekend performance. NU’s fall campaign is now over, and the team will not compete again until Jan. 13. To stay in shape until then, the Cats will train for two weeks at the University of Hawaii, Petersen said.

Hwang, who is from Hawaii, said he is looking forward to training close to home. He added that he is excited to focus solely on swimming and take a break from balancing academics and athletics.

“Usually we all come out in very good shape after the training,” Hwang said. “We’re just looking forward to swimming more season-bests, being more aggressive at the meets and putting up times that are going to help us be competitive at Big Tens.”

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