Northwestern swimming and diving rewrote the history books after two busy weekends at the Big Ten Championships.
The men’s team competed from Feb. 26 to March 1, finishing seventh in the Big Ten with 711 points. The women competed from Feb. 19 to 22, finishing ninth in the conference with 409 points.
Sophomore Stuart Seymour registered a historic performance this weekend for the Wildcats, breaking two individual school records that had been held for nearly two decades. Stuart set new high marks in the 50-yard freestyle (19.22) and 100-yard backstroke (45.07). He also swam in the school-record-setting 400 free relay along with sophomore Cade Duncan, sophomore Connor Schuster, and sophomore David Gerchik.
Seymour finished on the podium in both individual events. He finished eighth in the Big Ten in the 50 free and third in the 100 back, the highest placement of any NU swimmer throughout the competition. Gerchik broke Olympian Matt Grevers’ school record in the event earlier Saturday, but Seymour bested that mark in the finals. Gerchik finished 6th in the event and capped off his weekend with a 5th-place finish in the 200 back.
The women’s 800-yard free relay of graduate student Nikki Venema, freshman Zoe Nordmann, sophomore Sydney Smith and junior Hana Shimizu-Bowers also set a new school record.
Her 7th-place finish in the 100 free was NU’s lone individual podium result on the women’s side. Venema also competed as part of the 7th-place 400 and 6th-place 800 free relays.
NU’s rising stars also shined. Nordmann and freshman Grey Davis were named to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team. Nordmann set a personal best in the 500 free and finished 13th in the conference with a time of 4:41.43. Davis swam a personal best 1:58.65 in the 200-yard individual medley, finishing 23rd in the conference.
Freshman Joshua Staples was the lone NU freshman to make the podium with a 5th-place finish in the 500 free and a 6th-place finish in the 1650 free. He was named to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team for his performance.
NU’s men finished in fifth in the 200 and 400 medley relays, each consisting of Gerchik, senior Tyler Lu, Seymour and Duncan.
Lu also reached the podium in the 200 IM, finishing sixth.
Sophomore Diego Nosack added two of the NU men’s 14 podium finishes, placing fifth in the 400 IM and eighth in the 200 fly.
The ’Cats automatically qualified for the NCAA championships in the men’s 400 free relay after swimming an NCAA “A” cut time.
Following successful conference championship weekends, NU now awaits NCAA championship qualifier announcements. The NCAA women’s championships are March 19-22, and the men’s championships are March 26-29.
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