The ‘Cats had their moments, but it was a forgettable week on the whole.
Northwestern women’s swimming and diving team took a trip to Columbus, Ohio on Wednesday for the Big Ten Championships. Facing dominant teams such as Ohio State, Indiana and Michigan, Northwestern had to be at its best to compete.
The women’s team was coming off a split result in a tri-dual meet at the beginning of February. In that meet, they beat Purdue 200-153 and lost to Minnesota 112-241. Northwestern finished 6-3 in the regular season and .500 in the Big Ten, but lost to two of its last three opponents. How would the purple and white fare against thirteen Big Ten schools this week?
Well, despite abandoning their claws, the ‘Cats found out that donning fins does not make you a sea animal. At the end of the week, they only managed to score a total of 409 points – a full 120 points behind the 8th-placed Boilermakers. This score earned the ‘Cats a 9th-place finish for the four-day meet.
On Thursday, freshman Zoe Nordmann was a bright spot for Northwestern, finishing 13th in the 500 freestyle. Consistency was the name of the game for Nordmann, as she split every length of the pool in under 29 seconds for a final time of 4:41.43. Anna Peplowski from Indiana, however, made history as she set the meet record in 4:33.86 to win the event.
In the 50 yard freestyle, junior Lindsay Ervin finished in 11th with a time of 22.25. Indiana junior Kristin Paegle won the event in 21.64.
On Friday, sophomore Sydney Smith scored one of the ‘Cats higher individual placements of the week with a 9th overall finish in the 200 free. Michigan’s Stephanie Balduccini won the event in 1:41.16 (the same Balduccini who finished 2nd at the 2023 Pan American Games in the 100 freestyle). Indiana’s Peplowski, after setting another meet record via her split in the 800 freestyle relay, was still in peak form. She earned a bronze in this event.
While Smith swam successfully, Northwestern’s breaststroke squad had a disappointing outing. After winning the 100 yard breaststroke at the meet on January 31, sophomore Maggie Papanicholas was set to make a splash in Columbus. Michigan junior Devon Kitchel derailed those plans when the two tied for 16th place in the prelims at 1:00.60.
So, the two went to a swim-off later that morning. However, fatigue had clearly set in, as Papanicholas added a full second to her previous time, losing to Kitchell by 1.02 seconds. Papanicholas would go on to win the C – Final, but her final time of 1:00.36 would have been enough to place her top three in the B – Final. USC Trojan Kaitlyn Dobler would win the overall event in 57.41.
Saturday was the last day of the meet, and super senior Nicole Venema clearly wanted the ‘Cats to end on a high note. Venema finished 7th in the 100 free in a time of 47.97. Michigan senior Lindsay Flynn proved to be the best Big Ten swimmer over two lengths of the pool, winning in a time of 47.30.
In the relays, Northwestern consistently finished in the middle of the pack. In the 200 medley relay, they swam to an 8th place finish. Senior Justine Murdock, Papanicholas, freshman Grey Davis and Ervin combined for a season best time of 1:37.51.
In both the 800 and 200 free relays Northwestern finished in 6th. Venema, Nordmann, Smith and junior Hana Shimizu-Bowers finished the 800 free in 7:03.96. This time both surpassed their season best by nearly nine seconds and scored an NCAA B-standard time.
The 200 free team also scored a B-standard season best as they finished in 1:28.52. Ervin, junior Audrey Yu and sophomore Amy Pan all split within .27 seconds of each other. Venema swam a blistering second leg of 21.63, which was faster than two Michigan swimmers (who won the event).
Both of those relays were won by a dominant Michigan Wolverine squad, which set meet records in both events. In the 800 yard freestyle relay they won in a time of 6:52.04, and in the 200 they set the meet record at 1:26.13.
In the 400 medley relay, the ‘Cats dropped to 10th. Murdock, Smith, Venema and Ervin did enjoy a slight victory over Penn State, however. They edged out the Nittany Lions by 0.05 seconds. Indiana won the event by two full seconds and missed out on the meet record by 0.3 seconds.
The ‘Cats ended the meet with a 7th-place finish in the 400 free relay. Venema, Ervin, Yu, and Smith capped off the slightly underwhelming meet with a new season best time of 3:14.95, which also met the NCAA’s B standard.
Michigan set one final meet record in this event, smashing their seed time by over 2 seconds to finish in 3:08.89. It certainly did not hurt that three of the top eight finishers in the 100 free were on that Michigan squad. Indiana came in 2nd, led by Peplowski once more.
Sharks are not native to Ohio, but marine biologists may be scratching their heads after today. The hosting Buckeyes won the 2025 women’s Big Ten championship, despite not winning an especially high number of events.
Ohio State racked up a whopping 1313 points over the course of the week. The meet was competitive on Wednesday, but after finishing 3rd, 4th, 5th and 7th in the 200 IM on Thursday evening, the Buckeyes never looked back.
The Northwestern women’s team will have a chance to improve this week’s performance in mid-March, when they compete in the NCAA diving zones. A week later, they will head out to Washington for the NCAA championships.