Northwestern capped off its regular season with a split result against Minnesota and Purdue in a Big Ten tri-dual meet in Minneapolis this weekend.
The No. 24 Wildcats’ men’s squad (7-1, 3-1 Big Ten) beat the Boilermakers 192-161, but picked up their first loss of the year against the Golden Gophers, falling 232.5-120.5. The women’s team (5-3, 2-2 Big Ten) had their most decisive conference victory of the season against Purdue, winning 200-153, but fell 241-112 to No. 24 Minnesota.
Sophomores David Gerchik and Stuart Seymour kickstarted the ’Cats with strong performances in the 100-yard backstroke on Friday. Gerchik and Seymour finished first and second in the race, with Gerchik edging out the win by 0.01 seconds.
Gerchik also won the 200-yard back and anchored NU’s winning 400-yard freestyle relay alongside sophomores Cade Duncan, Seymour and Connor Schuster.
Duncan had two individual victories along with the relay win. He won a competitive 50-yard free on Friday with a time of 19.97 seconds and followed that up with a victory in the 100-yard free on Saturday.
Sophomore Maggie Papanicholas and freshman Sophie Martin had a successful dual effort on Friday in the 100-yard breaststroke, finishing first and second respectively. On Saturday, Martin won the 100-yard butterfly and finished second in the 200-yard breast.
NU has competed against four different Big Ten opponents in their last three meets, giving the ’Cats a sense of their standing as they look ahead to conference championships later this month.
The women’s Big Ten Championships will be held from February 19-22 in Columbus, Ohio, while the men return to Minneapolis to compete from February 26 to March 1.
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