Despite finishing seventh out of nine teams, there were plenty of positive takeaways from conference champs.
The Big Ten men’s swimming and diving championships concluded on Saturday, and Northwestern placed seventh overall out of nine teams with 711 points. And while that result essentially matches its 2024 result of sixth out of eight teams, it doesn’t encapsulate the individual success stories that the ‘Cats produced from this meet.
First off, Northwestern saw significant improvement on nearly all of its relays. Arguably its best performance of the entire meet came in the 400-yard freestyle relay, where the all-sophomore team of Stuart Seymour, Cade Duncan, Connor Schuster and David Gerchik combined for a time of 2:49.77 to finish fourth and shatter the program record time of 2:51.17 set in 2007. The quartet’s time gets under the NCAA championship’s automatic qualifying cut by 0.02 seconds, which sends a Northwestern men’s relay to NCAAs for the first time since 2008.
Gerchik, Seymour and Duncan were also a part of Northwestern’s 400 medley relay alongside senior Tyler Lu. That relay combined for a time of 3:05.57, missing the NCAA qualifying cut by just 0.61 seconds. It marks NU’s fastest performance in that race since the Wildcats’ 2007 NCAA title-winning relay.
Northwestern’s other relay placements included fifth place in the 200 medley relay (1:23.82, the fastest since 2022), seventh place in the 800 free relay (6:20.77, the fastest since 2021), and eighth place in the 200 free relay (1:17.79, the fastest since 2007).
Seymour was the individual standout, taking down two of Olympic champion Matt Grevers’ program records while scoring a team-high 66 points. He went 19.22 in the preliminary heats of the 50 free, breaking Grevers’ 2005 mark of 19.35 before finishing eighth in the finals. The next day, he raced the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke in the same session, placing 10th in the 100 fly and third in the 100 back. In the 100 fly, he set a best time of 45.62 during prelims, whereas in the 100 back he went a best time of 45.07 to break Grevers’ program record of 45.61 from 2007.
Although swimming has gotten considerably faster since the 2000s, it’s still huge for Seymour to take down two of Grevers’ marks, given that Grevers is the most accomplished swimmer in program history. Seymour also now ranks 19th in the NCAA for the 100 back, the highest national ranking for a Northwestern swimmer in an individual event.
Sophomore Diego Nosack was the second-highest scorer on the team with 60 individual points. His best finish was fifth place in the 400 individual medley, clocking a time of 3:42.70, just 0.01 shy of his personal best. He also finished eighth in the 200 fly (1:42.63) and 14th in the 200 IM (1:44.02). In prelims, he set best times of 1:41.66 and 1:43.84 in each event respectively.
Australian freshman Josh Staples had a big breakout meet at Big Tens, notching 50 points and two top-eight finishes. His first came in the 500 free, where he finished fifth and set a best time of 4:15.83 in heats, improving nearly nine seconds off his best time. He also saw a 24-second time drop in the 1650 free, placing sixth in a time of 14:53.20.
The other two NU swimmers to notch top-eight finishes were Lu and Gerchik. Lu finished sixth in the 200 IM with a 1:42.49, a best time by over a second. He was also 17th in the 100 breaststroke (53.17) and 15th in the 200 breast (1:56.20). Meanwhile, Gerchik placed sixth in the 100 back (45.54), fifth in the 200 back (1:41.31) and 30th in the 50 free (19.93), setting best times in the latter two finals. He also went a best time of 45.25 in the prelims of the 100 back, also getting under Grevers’ old program record mark.
While the Northwestern men were competing at the Big Ten Tournament, the women’s team raced at the Wisconsin Women’s Last Chance meet on Saturday, where Lindsay Ervin, Nikki Venema, Audrey Yu and Amy Pan clocked a time of 1:28.34 in the 200 free relay to earn themselves NCAA qualification after they fell short at Big Tens previously.
With both the men and women having qualified swimmers, Northwestern will next compete at the NCAA Championships in Federal Way, Washington. The women race from Mar. 19 to 23, while the men race from Mar. 26 to 30.