The Notre Dame Fighting Irish used a rounded attack to crush Michigan State, with 18 different Fighting Irish swimmers winning in 22 individual events.
Men’s Meet
The men’s meet saw 9 different individual winners step up for Notre Dame, including a strong showing from the large freshman class.
Tabahn Afrik led that freshman class with an individual win and a share of two relay titles. Afrik was 45.38 to win the 100 free and anchored the winning 400 medley relay in 44.35. His best swim, though, came at the end, as he split 19.08 on his leg of the 200 free relay. Afrik was aggressive from the very get-go in that race, with a relay exchange reaction of 0.0 seconds, per the results.
Also on both relays was sophomore Justin Plaschka, who took the 50 free individually. Plaschka was 20.51 there.
Freshman Connor Brown took the 1000 free in a 1-2 punch for Notre Dame, going 9:33.38. One event later, junior Reed Fujan was 1:41.17 to lead a 1-2-3 in the 200 free.
Michigan State didn’t get a win until the 20th event of the night, the 500 free. There, sophomore Joe Szczupakiewicz went 4:38.23 to win by over two seconds. Just a couple events later, Alec Kandt would double the Spartan win total with a 2:06.36 victory in the 200 breast.
Final Score:
Notre Dame 174 – Michigan State 69
Women’s Meet
The women’s meet saw a full-event sweep for Notre Dame, with 9 swimmers combining for 11 individual wins.
Catherine Mulquin and diver Lindsey Streepey were the only two athletes to double up individually.
Mulquin, a junior, swept the sprints, going 23.69 in the 50 free and 51.96 in the 100 free. Streepey won both the 1-meter and 3-meter springboard events.
Freshman Ella Moynihan had a nice showing for Notre Dame, nearly stealing that second win from Mulquin. Moynihan took the 200 free in 1:51.81, then returned to finish just behind Mulquin in the 100 free at 52.49.
Junior star Katie Miller had a blowout win in the 400 IM to highlight the meet. She was 4:23.61, more than seven seconds faster than anyone else in the field.
A tough matchup for the Spartans was highlighted by two nice distance swims from sophomore Haley Kornburger. She was second in both the 1000 free and 500 free, going 10:31.86 to finish behind Molly Treble (10:29.20) in the 1000 and 5:07.33 for runner-up honors behind Elizabeth House (5:05.73) in the 500.
Final Score:
Notre Dame 158 – Michigan State 80