Northwestern’s swimming and diving squads ended their regular season with a handful of wins after the Big Ten Triple Duals/Quad in West Lafayette, Indiana over the weekend.
The Wildcats competed against Purdue, Iowa, and Minnesota in two days of conference battle ending with nine first-place honors for NU overall.
Graduate student Ayla Spitz stood out immediately against a Golden Gopher team ranked No. 22 by the CSCAA. Spitz’s early first-place finish of 1:44.96 for the 200-yard freestyle was the first NCAA championship-qualifying time of the meet, setting the tone for a tough fight against their Big Ten opponents.
Spitz also took home an NCAA-qualifying first-place swim for her 1:54.27 in the 200-yard backstroke.
Sophomore Lindsay Ervin had an equally impressive weekend, earning her own first place, NCAA-qualifying swim in 49.31 seconds for the 100 free. Ervin was a critical sprinter who kept the energy level high for Wildcat women in the pool, reining in a first-place finish of 22.70 in the highly competitive 50 free.
The ‘Cats were just as fierce on the men’s squad. Junior Tyler Lu left with two first-place victories in the 100-yard breaststroke and 200-yard individual medley, finishing with times of 53.66 and 1:46.78, respectively.
Freshman David Gerchik swam 1:43.89 in the 200 back and junior Connor Morikawa finished the 200 breast in 1:57.11. Each earned first place and an NCAA-qualifying time in their events.
Keeping the pace for the Wildcat men was graduate student Andrew Martin, who completed 20 laps for the 1,000-yard free in a first place time of 8:52.28.
Minnesota proved the biggest challenge for both squads this weekend. Of the 11 events where NU finished second place, the Golden Gophers took 10 wins.
The nearly dozen close races swam by the ‘Cats are indicative of a team eager to bounce back following a January home defeat to Wisconsin.
Overall, the men’s and women’s teams each took home a handful of first-place victories for the triple dual/quad matchup, and NU will bring this momentum to Columbus, Ohio at the end of February for the Big Ten Championships.
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