The women were handed a rough loss, but the men made history.
On Saturday, Northwestern swimming and diving traveled to Madison to take on Wisconsin. The Badgers, ranked No. 12 on the women’s side and No. 18 on the men’s side, are typically one of the Wildcats’ toughest opponents during the regular season.
The Northwestern women were overwhelmed by Wisconsin, falling 205.5-93.5. However, the men had a big 163.5-136.5 victory, beating the Badgers for the first time since 2013.
Women’s Recap
On the women’s side, Northwestern was dominated by a powerful Wisconsin team expected to earn a top-12 finish at this year’s NCAA Championships. The Badgers were ruthless from the start, with the team’s A and B relays beating the Wildcats’ A relay in the 400-yard medley relay. Wisconsin, well-known for its women’s distance swimming depth, then went 1-2-3 in the 1000 freestyle.
The Badgers’ dominance continued into mid-distance freestyle, as they also went 1-2-3 in the 200 free. But unlike the previous race, Northwestern’s Sydney Smith could stay with the front of the pack, clocking a 1:46.81 to finish 0.21 seconds away from the top three. That time was also Smith’s fastest since December 2021. Two-time U.S. Olympian Phoebe Bacon then dominated the 100 backstroke by over three seconds, but NU first-year Claire Mehok had a great battle with Wisconsin’s Abby Wanezek for second, out-touching her by 0.26 seconds and setting a new personal best time (54.07).
Maggie Papanicholas didn’t have the same magic touch as Mehok, getting beaten by Wisconsin’s Bridget McGann for second by just 0.01 of a second in the 100 breaststroke (Papanicholas went 1:01.22). McGann’s teammate Hazal Ozkan won the event. The trend continued in the 200 fly, where Wisconsin’s Mackenzie McConagha won by over five seconds and Northwestern’s Lilly Mehok was several body lengths behind in second (2:00.38).
Sprint freestyle is one of the few weaknesses of the Badger women, and Northwestern surely capitalized on that. Although Wisconsin’s Hailey Tierney won the 50 free, Lindsay Ervin, Audrey Yu and Amy Pan gave NU a 2-3-4 finish. Ervin’s 22.55 was also just 0.23 seconds away from Tierney.
This momentum continued into the one-meter diving event, where Caroline Li and Shauntel Lim went 1-2 with scores of 261.23 and 248.40 respectively to claim Northwestern’s first and only women’s victory of the day. Then came another close second-place finish from Ervin, who was out-touched by Wanezek in the 100 freestyle (49.14) by 0.4 seconds. Wanezek’s younger sister, Maggie, won the 200 back (1:53.69) by nearly three seconds ahead of Claire Mehok (1:56.69). Mehok came close to her best time, but couldn’t do anything to catch one of the Big Ten title contenders in the 200 back.
Ozkan and Papanicholas repeated their 100 breast result with a 1-2 finish in the 200 breast. Papanicholas went a time of 2:11.57 — a personal best for her by half a second. Wisconsin’s Blair Stoneburg won the 500 free by nearly four seconds, but Northwestern’s Zoe Nordmann clocked a 4:46.30 to place second and break apart a Badger quartet that went 1-3-4-5. That event was followed by the 100 fly, where Wildcats Sophie Martin and Maggie Belbot finished second and third with times of 53.50 and 54.46 respectively.
The platform diving event didn’t go as well as the one-meter, with Wisconsin divers taking the top four spots. Li was fifth with a score of 179.70. Bacon dominated the 200 individual medley, with Grey Davis placing in second nearly four seconds behind (1:59.60). To close out the meet, Northwestern scored a second-place finish in the 200 free relay.
With Wisconsin fielding its best team in several years and Northwestern lacking in superstars, this result was bound to happen. However, the few best times here and there from the Wildcats are a good sign of what’s to come.
Men’s Recap
The Wisconsin men aren’t as strong as their female counterparts, but Northwestern defeating them for the first time in over a decade shows its progress.
Northwestern started strong, winning the 400 medley relay by over a second to earn important relay points. Wisconsin went 1-2 in the 1000 free and Nico Butera won the 200 free, giving the Badgers an early lead. However, the Wildcats showed up big time in the 100 back. A week after going a huge best time, Stuart Seymour continued his momentum in the event, clocking a 45.93 that was just 0.08 seconds off his personal best to win. In second was David Gerchik, helping NU punch its first 1-2 finish of the meet.
The win streak continued for the Wildcats after that, with Tyler Lu (53.75) and Diego Nosack (1:43.75) winning their races in the 100 breast and 200 fly respectively. Nosack notably beat Wisconsin’s Dominik Mark Torok by 0.05 seconds — the two swimmers both finished top eight at Big Tens in this event last year, and will be expected to compete for the title again this year.
Wisconsin went 1-2 in the 50 free and next won the platform diving event, but Northwestern’s Adam Cohen, Kyle Ly and Nolan Rooker scored a 2-3-4 finish in the latter event to outscore the Badgers. Next, Cade Duncan dominated the 100 free by nearly two seconds (42.55), improving upon his best time from last week by 0.2 seconds. In second was his teammate Connor Schuster. Duncan now inches closer to Matt Grevers’ team record of 42.33 from 2007.
Northwestern continued stacking victories in the 200 back, with David Gerchik winning the event by over three seconds (1:42.40) and Oliver Kos placing second. Torok picked up the 200 breast for Wisconsin, but Nosack won his second event of the day in the 500 free (4:22.62) afterward. In the event, Nosack set a best time by nearly a second. Wisconsin’s Charlie Jones won the 100 fly, but an Adam Cohen-led (327.30) 1-2-3 finish in the one-meter dive helped the Wildcats in the home stretch of the meet.
To end things, Torok won the 200 IM, but Northwestern took the 200 free relay by a narrow margin of 0.19 to seal its victory.
Northwestern will next face Minnesota and Purdue in Minneapolis on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1.