Swimming and Diving

At the Big Ten Championships meet last week, Northwestern concluded the team season over four days of competition.

The Wildcats took seventh place out of 13 teams at the tournament for the second consecutive year. Michigan claimed first with a score of 1465 points, while NU (6-5, 3-3 Big Ten) finished with 528 points.

Junior Olivia Rosendahl highlighted the meet for the Cats with a new school record and a first-place finish in the 3-meter diving event and a second-place finish in the 10-meter platform.

The meet started Wednesday with two relays, and a new school record was set by the 200-yard medley relay team of freshmen Calypso Sheridan, Sophie Angus, Ilektra Lebl and senior Mary Warren, who came in fifth with a time of 1:38.44.

For Lebl, an international student from Greece, the relay was an amazing experience, she said, because there is no college swimming in Greece.

“I have never had so much fun in my life in competition,” Lebl said. “The atmosphere and energy were higher and totally different from what I’ve experienced.”

On Thursday, Sheridan set another school record in the 200-yard individual medley, touching in 10th in 1:57.60. Warren made it to finals in the 50-yard freestyle — finishing 14th in 22.59, her fastest time of the season — and Rosendahl finished fourth in the 1-meter diving.

Rosendahl kept up her momentum Friday when she won the 3-meter with 389.95 points, setting a school record. It was also a strong day for the freshmen, with Sheridan finishing seventh in the 400 IM in 4:10.48 and Angus finishing ninth in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:00.43.

Saturday, Angus and Sheridan came in seventh and ninth in the 200 breast, touching in 2:10.81 and 2:08.80. Although only able to score in the B final, Sheridan’s swim was the fifth-fastest of the day. Rosendahl capped off the diving portion with a second-place finish in the 10-meter platform, the event in which she is the national champion.

For sophomore Krystal Lara, the 200-yard backstroke finished on a high note as she set a career-best time of 1:57.84. Now, Lara said she is training for nationals in the Dominican Republic.

“It was my best time of the season and overall best performance. I was really happy about that,” Lara said. “I’m just going to keep my head up and keep moving forward.”

With the team’s season over, individual NU swimmers will be heading to meets across the country and the world. The NCAA Zones Diving meet — the qualifier for NCAA Championships — is in a few weeks, and in the coming months, individual Cats will head to Germany, Georgia, South Africa and Arizona.

With the conference meet now in the past, coach Abby Steketee said she was proud of NU’s fierceness throughout the meet and is excited for the future.

“It was really an awesome experience,” Steketee said. “They really put their hearts into it and really had the courage to put their best efforts forward.”

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @rachkupfer