Northwestern’s men’s and women’s swim and dive teams got in the bus and went on the road, taking stops in South Bend to face Notre Dame last Friday, and Ann Arbor to face Michigan and UCLA (though, UCLA only
has a women’s team, so the men’s team just swam against Michigan). Across the weekend, Northwestern swam in a total of five head-to-head matchups, losing each one of them despite posting many competitive times.
On Friday, the Notre Dame men and women beat Northwestern 158.5-141.5 and 151-149, respectively. On Saturday, the Michigan men and women beat Northwestern 186-114 and 205-92, respectively, while the UCLA women beat Northwestern 165.5-134.5.
Following the men’s and women’s teams’ sweep of Miami (OH) and Southern Illinois at the Norris Aquatics Center, this was Northwestern’s second and third meets of the season, and their first time on the road. Though the losses are tough to swallow, the ‘Cats were up against tough opponents. In the CSCAA’s October top 25 poll, both of Michigan’s teams were ranked N0. 10, Notre Dame’s men’s team was ranked No. 25, while their women’s team was listed as having received 6 votes, and UCLA’s women’s team was ranked N0. 23. For context, Northwestern’s teams were both unranked, though the women’s squad received 4 votes.
Results for the Notre Dame meet can be found on the app Meet Mobile or on Swimcloud’s meet page for the event. Results for the Michigan/UCLA meet can only be found on Meet Mobile.
If interested in learning about how team and high point scoring works for dual-meets, please reference the section “Explanation of Dual-Meet Scoring System” at the bottom of last week’s swim and dive recap article.
Men’s Recap:
The weekend kicked off against N0. 25 Notre Dame in South Bend. Facing their first ranked opponent of the season, the Wildcats were competitive. In fact, in the swimming events Northwestern lost just 133.5 to 128.5. If Northwestern had managed to beat Notre Dame in the 400 freestyle relay, which was tied with a shared time of 2:53.18 (7.5 points to each team), the ‘Cats would have picked up 7 points on Notre Dame in the event, and won the total swimming tally by 2. However, it was Northwestern’s diving that really struggled, losing 25-13 to the Fighting Irish’s Ben Nguyen led diving squad.
Of Northwestern’s 24 podium finishes, two of them were relay victories, from the Gerchik-Staples-Shlegel-Seymour 200 medley relay and the Seymour-Staples-Kos-Gerchik 400 freestyle relay that tied the Irish. The ‘Cats’ standout performer was the Aussie Joshua Staples, who was the meet’s high point, winning gold on both relays, and sweeping his individual events. Though Staples usually swims distance freestyle, he has been working to develop his breaststroke, to fill the departure of Tyler Lu. Staples won both the 100 and 200 breaststroke events on Friday, posting best times in each with a 53.09 and a 1:55.46 (the fastest Northwestern 200 breaststroke in over a year), respectively.
After a 3-hour drive northeast to Ann Arbor, Northwestern swimmers found the podium 15 times over the span of 16 events against Michigan. Of the 15 podium performances, there were 4 event winners: Diego Nosack in the 400-yard I.M., Adam Cohen in 1-meter diving, David Gerchik in the 100-yard backstroke, and Joshua Staples in the 1000-yard freestyle. Though, considering this was an unshaven, unsuited early season meet, only one of the ‘Cats’ four gold medal swims was within 2 seconds of a best time. This special swim was Staple’s 1000-yard freestyle, which came within a second and a half of his best time from the B1G Conference Championships in March. Considering the distance of the race, this was a great swim from Staples, who looks bound to smash his best of 8:56.92 in the event come peak season.
Speaking of Staples, it was the Australian who also wowed in the 400 medley relay. After posting career best times in the 100-yard breaststroke two swims in a row—53.67 against Miami/Southern Illinois and 53.09 against Notre Dame—it was Staples who got the nod for the breaststroke leg of the 400 medley relay. Staples split an unbelievable 51.91 in the breaststroke leg, which was over a second faster than his non-relay swim the day prior in South Bend, and almost a second faster than Tyler Lu’s split at B1G’s last year. With incredible early season breaststroke performances, Staples looks poised to swim breaststroke in the medley relays come Spring. Northwestern finished 2nd in both the relays, touching behind Michigan’s A team both times.
Women’s Recap:
In South Bend, the Wildcats suffered a heartbreaking 151-149 loss, missing out on an upset road win by just 2 points. Though Notre Dame had the best talent in the pool, finishing with 4 of the 5 high point leaders (including 1 and 2), Northwestern had more depth, finishing with 12 of the 20 high point leaders, claiming spots 14-20. In the end, similarly to the men’s team, it was diving that came to cost the Wildcats. On the swimming end, Northwestern won the meet, sweeping both relays and beating the Fighting Irish 137-125. However, in 1 meter and 3 meter diving, Notre Dame’s Grace Courtney and Calie Brady went 1-2, toppling Northwestern 26-12. Courtney and Brady’s dominant performances turned out to be the difference.
Northwestern claimed 25 medals in the meet, with 7 gold medal performances. A ‘Cats team of Davis-Nikolova-Nikonova-Ervin won the 200 medley relay, while the Ervin-Nikonova-Yu-Pan team won the 400 freestyle relay. Zoe Nordmann won the 500 and 1000-yard freestyle events, taking 3rd in high point scoring for the meet.
Facing tough competition in No. 10 Michigan and No. 23 UCLA, it was a long meet for the ‘Cats Saturday in the Canham Natatorium. The women’s team found the podium just 7 times, securing 0 golds.
Amongst the podium finishes was Northwestern’s Ervin-Yu-Pan-Chow 200-yard freestyle relay, which touched 2nd with a time of 1:30.67. Audrey Yu’s speedy 22.37 50 split was the fastest split in the event. Looking at individual performances, it was Zoe Nordmann and Margaret Papanichola who were multi-event podium finishers. Nordmann finished 2nd in the 500-yard freestyle and 3rd in the 1000-yard freestyle, while Papanichola took bronze in both breaststroke events.
Meanwhile, though the ‘Cats were shutout of podium finishes in both diving events, Lydia Georgopoulou and Isabella Chen picked up A NCAA qualifying scores in the 1 meter and 3 meter diving events, respectively. Both of them finished 4th on the meet in their NCAA-qualification events.
One Big Observation:
Though the Northwestern women’s team returned 3 of the 4 swimmers from all three of their championship freestyle relays last season, the graduation of Nikki Venema has left head coach Rachel Stratton-Mills with a gap to fill in each relay. Venema swam one year with Northwestern as a senior transfer from Princeton. In 2023, Venema won the 50 and 100-yard freestyle events at the Ivy League Championships, finishing as the meet’s high point champion, as the Tigers took home the Ivy League title. At Northwestern last season, Venema held the team’s best individual performances in the 100 and 200 freestyle, and the second best time in the 50 freestyle. At her best last season, Venema relay splits were 20.81 in the 50, 48.38 in the 100 (as leadoff), and 1:44.06 in the 200.
Replacing Venema in the 200 freestyle relay is likely to be freshman Isabella Chow. There’s been a lot of hype surrounding Chow, Northwestern’s N0. 1 recruit from the Class of 2029, ranked 73rd in the nation and 3rd from the state of Illinois. Chow’s personal best 50 time of 22.53 makes her the second fastest 50-freestyler on the team, behind Lindsay Ervin’s sub-22 21.98 from Wisconsin Last Chance last season. Against Michigan/UCLA this past weekend, Chow was a part of the 200 freestyle relay, posting a time of 22.90.
In the 400 and 800 freestyle relays, team captain Ekaterina Nikonova is anticipated to fill the gaps left by Venema. A graduate transfer from Florida, Nikonova redshirted her senior season with the ‘Cats after suffering a season ending torn meniscus with the Gators heading into the postseason her junior year. As a sophomore, the Russian was the leadoff swimmer for Florida’s A 400 freestyle and 800 freestyle relays, posting a career best 47.86 in her 100 free relay leg at SEC Championships and 1:43.83 in her 200 free relay leg at NCAA Championships. However, since returning from injury in November of 2024, Nikonova has been unable to eclipse 49-seconds in the 100, nor 1:46.60 in the 200 freestyle. So far this season, Nikonova’s 49.43 against Notre Dame is the 2nd fastest 100 freestyle for the ‘Cats this season. In the 400 freestyle relay that same meet, Nikonova split a 48.83 for the ‘Cats, the second fastest split behind Audrey Yu’s 48.42. Meanwhile, though the ‘Cats are yet to swim an 800 freestyle relay, Nikonova’s 1:47.61 is also 2nd fastest on the team. It’s encouraging to see Nikonova post some promising early season times, though Stratton-Mills and the ‘Cats Faithful certainly have dreams of Nikonova inching back closer to top speed as the season progresses.
Looking Ahead
Following these losses on the road, Northwestern will have two weeks off midseason practice before hosting Duke November 7th and 8th in the Norris Aquatics Center. The Wildcats will wait close to a month before heading back on the road, for the Texas Hall of Fame Invite (swimmers) and the Ohio State Fall Invite (divers) November 20th-22nd. Northwestern’s first invitational meet of the year, the Texas Hall of Fame Invite will be the first suit-up meet of the year for Wildcat swimmers.
