Northwestern men’s swimming and diving clawed its way to a dominant win at Duke on Nov. 8 and 9 to stay undefeated this season. Meanwhile, the women’s team broke its two-meet winning streak and lost a close battle against the Blue Devils.
The Wildcats men’s team (3-0, 0-0 Big Ten) won all 16 events of the two-day meet to earn a 225.5-107.5 victory over the Blue Devils (2-1, 0-1 ACC). On the women’s side, NU (2-1, 0-0 Big Ten) won five events but couldn’t keep up with Duke (2-1, 1-0 ACC) and lost 137-194.
On the first day of the meet, the NU men’s team got off to a hot start and never let up.
Sophomore Diego Nosack earned a pair of individual wins in the 200-yard freestyle and 200-yard butterfly. Nosack also anchored the winning 800-yard freestyle relay to close Friday before continuing his dominant performance on Saturday, winning the 400-yard individual medley.
Sophomore Cade Duncan, senior Tyler Lu and freshman Joshua Staples all added two individual victories. Duncan won the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyles, while Lu won both breaststroke events. Staples won the 1650-yard and 500-yard freestyle distance races. All three also contributed to team relay victories.
The ’Cats enjoyed success in distance events throughout the weekend. The freshman trio of Staples, Tristan Prizler and Alexander Rousseau finished first, second and third in the 1650-yard freestyle, respectively. The first-year success was matched on the women’s side, with Luiza Lima winning the 1650-yard freestyle and Zoe Nordmann taking the 500-yard freestyle.
Although NU’s women’s team suffered its first defeat of the season, there were numerous bright spots against the nationally-ranked Blue Devils.
The ’Cats won the 400-yard and 800-yard freestyle relays. Graduate student Nikki Venema contributed to both races and also delivered an individual victory in the 100-yard butterfly. Freshman Sophie Martin swam a season-best time of 1:00.31 in a runner-up finish in the 100-yard breaststroke to Duke’s Kaelyn Gridley, a reigning All-American.
The ’Cats meet against Duke was the first of three consecutive away meets.
They will compete next at the NC State Invite from Nov. 21-23, their first invitational tournament of the 2024-25 season.
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