Wildcats Defeat Cincinnati at Second Meet of Season, Ly Sets School Record in 3-Meter Diving – Northwestern Athletics

EVANSTON, Ill. — Northwestern’s swimming and diving team moved to 2-0 on the season, dominating the University of Cincinnati in a dual meet on Friday afternoon at Norris Aquatics Center. Both the women’s and men’s teams won handily, 188.5-110.5 and 188-111, respectively.
 
“This competition was a real opportunity for our team to fight through the fatigue of our most recent training block,” said Rachel Stratton-Mills, Northwestern’s Director of Swimming & Diving. “Though they showed signs of heavy training, they didn’t let that stop them from executing their race plans and scoring points for the team. It was a great show by all members of the team, and really demonstrated the depth that this program will bring to the Big Ten this season.”

Women’s: The team kicked off the competition by winning the 400 medley relay, with Grey Davis, Sophie Martin, Nikki Venema, and Lindsay Ervin turning in a time of 3:37.55. Luiza Lima then clinched first in the 1000 freestyle in 9:58.87.

 

Sydney Smith (1:47.92) won the 200 freestyle for the second consecutive meet, edging out teammates Zoe Nordmann (1:48.38) and Brianna Deierlein (1:48.62).

 

Hana Shimizu-Bowers earned a first place finish in the 200 butterfly (2:00.59), squeaking past Cincinnati’s Mia Hensley (2:00.98).

 

“On the women’s side, the tag team of Ervin and Venema went 1-2 in both sprint events and really showed their speed early in the season,” said Stratton-Mills.

 

In the short distance races, Venema (22.79) and Ervin (23.03) finished 1-2, respectively, in the 50 freestyle. They swapped places in the 100 freestyle with Ervin (49.33) surpassing Venema (49.52).

 

The 200 backstroke saw a trio of ‘Cats lead the race: Claire Mehok (1:59.01) finished first, followed by Justine Murdock (1:59.12) and Deierlein (2:00.16).

 

First-year Sophie Martin, a native of Australia, convincingly won the 200 breaststroke in 2:12.82, almost five second faster than Cincinnati’s Julie Rose. Martin also won the 200 IM, cruising to victory in 1:59.92.   

Men’s: The team of David Gerchik, Tyler Lu, Cade Duncan, and Stuart Seymour started off strong by winning the 400 medley relay in 3:10.22.

 

“On the men’s side, we saw Joshua Staples dominate the distance events and Stuart Seymour showed his versatility throughout the meet,” said Stratton-Mills.

 

Staples secured victory in both the 500 freestyle (4:24.60) and 1000 freestyle (9:04.58). His teammate, Tristan Prizler, finished second in the 1000 freestyle (9:17:86).

 

Seymour earned a first place finish in the 100 butterfly (47.60) and the 200 freestyle (1:38.88).

 

Lu won the 100 breaststroke (54.12), and the ‘Cats swept the podium in the 200 butterfly, seeing Diego Nosack win (1:46.86), followed by Tonahuc Zinn (1:48.00) and David Vinokur (1:50.57).

 

Duncan was victorious in both the 50 freestyle (20.66) and 100 freestyle (44.16).

 

A foursome of Seymour, Duncan, Christopher Leung and Gerchik closed out the swimming portion of the event with a resounding win in the 200 freestyle relay (1:20.34).

 

Diving: The top newsmaker of the meet was first-year Kyle Ly who set a school record in the 3-meter dive (384.30). He also dominated the 1-meter competition (328.43).

 

In the women’s 1-meter, Northwestern dominated taking the top four spots, led by Caroline Li (273.45). Isabella Chen won the 3-meter battle (284.63)

 

Northwestern has started the season with back-to-back home meet victories. Last weekend, the team defeated Miami (OH) in Evanston, with both the men’s and women’s teams having the exact same result, 203-97. The Wildcats will be back in action next Friday, November 8 at 5:00 p.m. CT at Duke University in Durham, NC. It is a two-day meet that continues on Saturday, November 9.