Swimming and Diving

Northwestern knew it was in for a challenge when it scheduled meets on consecutive days at Louisville and Cincinnati. But after falling to the ranked Cardinals on Friday, the Wildcats bounced back and defeated the Bearcats on Saturday.

The No. 23 NU women (5-3, 2-2 Big Ten) lost 166-134 to No. 16 Louisville (4-2), while the men (3-4, 0-3) dropped their dual to the No. 8 Cardinals (6-2) 200-100. However, both Cats squads won on Saturday against Cincinnati, as the women beat the Bearcats (5-1) 170-129 and the men won 172.5-127.5.

“Overall, we did a really exceptional job,” coach Jeremy Kipp said. “The team got off the bus (in Louisville) with a very clear vision… It was a lot closer than the score showed. We bussed over to Cincinnati that night, and the team did a really good job.”

The women had seven first-place finishes in Louisville, three of which came from sophomore Calypso Sheridan, who won the 100- and 200-yard backstroke and the 400-yard individual medley. The lone victory on the men’s side came from freshman Manu Bacarizo in the 200 back.

Other victories from the women came from sophomore Sophie Angus in the 100-yard breaststroke, junior Malorie Han in the 100-yard freestyle, freshman Miriam Guevara in the 100-yard butterfly and senior Olivia Rosendahl in the 3-meter diving.

“Miriam Guevara, she was really good, she got a big win in the 100 fly on Friday,” Kipp said. “The other person who had a breakout weekend was Sophie Angus. Her 1:01 on Friday in the 100 breast, that’s a really fast time for this time of year. She just looked great.”

NU dominated the proceedings on Saturday, with the women winning 10 of 16 events and the men winning 9 of 16. The Cats also finally faced a team they could showcase their depth against: NU had at least one of the top two spots in all but four events across both genders. In 13 events, the Cats took home both first and second place.

The Cats swept the diving events, with Rosendahl winning both the 1- and 3-meter events for the women and freshman Evan Labuda winning both for the men. The women also got three more first-place finishes from Sheridan, as well as wins from Angus, Han and Guevara in the same events they won on Friday.

The men were led by freshman Andrew Zhang, who won both the 100 back and the 50 free. Bacarizo won the 200 back for the second straight day. The Cats also got wins from freshman Ryan Gridley in the 200 free and senior Ryan Tate in the 100 fly.

“I did pretty well, compared to where I was last season,” Zhang said. “It’s a pretty big confidence booster going into resting for (Big Ten Championships).”

Kipp said the team’s maturity since the start of the season helped NU come back from a difficult meet on Friday and get the win on Saturday.

“If we had tried to do (the back-to-back) in October, I’m not sure we’d have the same result,” Kipp said. “The team is a lot more confident in their training and their performance.”

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