No. 19 Northwestern capped a breakthrough week at the Big Ten Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships on Saturday night, finishing fourth after breaking 12 school records across four days.
At the Soderholm Family Aquatic Center in Madison, Wis., head coach Rachel Stratton-Mills and the ‘Cats outshined all expectations, capping off a magical season in Evanston. Their fourth-place finish marked their highest finish at the conference championship meet since six-time Olympic medalist Matt Grevers led
his squad to the same placement in 2006.
No. 3 Indiana claimed the team title with 1,544.5 points, followed by No. 12 Michigan in second (1,208) and No. 11 Ohio State in third (1,035.5). Tyler Ray won Swimmer of the Meet, with two gold medal performances and a Big Ten conference record in the 100-yard butterfly.
Results for the Big Ten Championships can be found on the Meet Mobile app or on Swimcloud’s meet page for the event.
Meet Recap
After finishing seventh in 2025, Northwestern placed fourth at the championships this year, totaling 840 points. The ‘Cats topped No. 24 Wisconsin by just 7.5 points in the team scoring, while finishing well ahead of seventh place No. 15 USC.
Indiana’s path to the title was nothing short of dominant. The Hoosiers secured their fifth consecutive Big Ten crown and 32nd all-time conference championship, winning 10 individual and relay titles and collecting 27 total medals. They shattered meet records in four events: the 400-yard individual medley (Josh Bey – 3:34.90), 100-yard backstroke (Owen McDonald – 44.28), 500-yard freestyle (Zalán Sárkány – 4:09.14) and 1,650-yard freestyle (Sárkány – 14:25.40). Indiana placed nine swimmers inside the top 20 of the individual high-point standings, showcasing its overwhelming depth of star power.
Head coach Ray Looze summed up the program’s momentum by declaring that “Indiana University is red hot and the place to be,” a nod to the school’s recent success on the national stage after the Hoosiers won the college football national championship in late January.
Only two Big Ten conference records fell over the course of the meet. Michigan’s Tyler Ray lowered the mark in the 100-yard butterfly with a 43.83, while Indiana’s Josh Bey set the conference standard in the 400-yard individual medley with his 3:34.90 performance as a freshman.
For Northwestern, the defining moments came in the relays. The Wildcats earned third-place finishes in both the 200-yard medley relay (Seymour–Staples–Baltayis–Kos) and the 400-yard medley relay (Seymour–Staples–Schuster–Duncan). The 200 medley relay podium on opening night, paired with a second-place showing in the team diving exhibition, immediately set the tone for what would become a statement weekend for Stratton-Mills’ Wildcats.
Individually, Northwestern truly delivered across the board. Stuart Seymour placed second in the 100-yard freestyle, fourth in the 100-yard backstroke and fifth in the 100-yard butterfly, with all of his swims except the 100-yard butterfly marking school records. Cade Duncan joined him on the podium in the 100 free, finishing third as the Wildcats went 2–3 in the event.
Joshua Staples posted fourth-place finishes in both the 200- and 400-yard individual medleys, setting school records in each, while Oli Kos — younger brother of Olympic gold medalist Hubert Kos — added a fourth-place finish in the 200-yard backstroke. Nearly every marquee swim from Seymour and Staples reset the program record book.
On the boards, Ryan Augustine led the way with a fifth-place finish in the 1-meter competition, the highest finish ever for a Northwestern diver at the Big Ten Championships. Adam Cohen and Kyle Ly followed with seventh- and eighth-place finishes, respectively, in platform diving, adding valuable points to the Wildcats’ team total.
In the individual high-point race, Michigan’s Tyler Ray claimed the top honor behind victories in the 100- and 200-yard butterfly and a third-place finish in the 50 freestyle. Indiana’s Owen McDonald placed second after winning the 100 backstroke and 200 individual medley and finishing fourth in the 100 fly, while Michigan’s Luka Mladenovic rounded out the top three. Northwestern placed two swimmers inside the top 20, with Seymour finishing seventh and Staples 14th. Kos also added a 40th-place showing for the ‘Cats.
One Big Observation
The best part about Northwestern’s fourth place finish at Big Ten’s, is that this is just the beginning.
For two decades, the ‘Cats have been essentially irrelevant in the Big Ten swimming landscape. Though there have been a few standout swimmers here and there, the reality is that there hasn’t been star-power like this in Evanston since the Matt Grevers era of Northwestern swimming.
In 2006, Northwestern finished fourth at Big Ten’s, winning seven Big Ten Championship events, riding three individual gold medal swims from Olympian Matt Grevers, who won the Big Ten’s Co-Swimmer of the Year that season. One year later, in 2007, the ‘Cats finished fifth overall and tallied ten Big Ten titles, with seven individual event victories and three first place relay finishes.
Since then, Northwestern had not come close to recapturing that level of dominance or depth in the Big Ten, with no team finishes inside the top five. There have been bright spots — individual finalists, school records falling, the occasional relay breakthrough — but nothing resembling the sustained, team-wide firepower that defined Northwestern twenty years ago.
This year, that changed.
By no means did this Northwestern team replicate the event-title dominance of the Grevers era at the Big Ten Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships. The ‘Cats didn’t win a single individual event and remained far from topping the medal table the way Matt Grevers and company did in 2007. But, this year there’s no denying that the ‘Cats did have star power.
Stuart Seymour’s runner-up finish in the 100 freestyle and fourth-place showing in the 100 backstroke established him as one of the premier sprinter-backstrokers in the conference, while Joshua Staples’ pair of fourth-place finishes in the 200 and 400 IM proved the same for the Australian as an IMer. With Seymour and Staples, the Wildcats placed two swimmers inside the top 20 of the individual high-point standings. This year, Northwestern did have two of the conference’s BEST swimmers.
What makes the ‘Cats performance this season even sweeter is that Northwestern is positioned to stay relevant in the Big Ten landscape for years to come.
None of head coach Rachel Stratton-Mills’ core stars are slated to graduate this offseason. Staples is a sophomore and Seymour is a junior. Both will be back next year to continue to be podium contenders in their top events. Really of Northwestern’s impact swimmers — Duncan, Schuster, Kos, Nosack, etc. — will be back next year, meaning that this team that performed a high level in Madison is far from done writing its story.
And, help is on the way. Northwestern’s incoming recruiting classes feature Brandon Ha, ranked No. 21 nationally in the class of 2026, and Kealan Supper, ranked No. 77 in the class of 2027 — two prospects bound to further elevate the program once they arrive in Evanston.
The ‘Cats are on the rise.
