The Northwestern Wildcats won men’s and women’s quad meets this weekend, topping host Chicago, plus the University of Illinois – Chicago (UIC) and Denison.
Chicago and Denison compete in the NCAA’s Division III, while UIC swims in the Horizon League of Division I and Northwestern the Big Ten.
Men’s Meet
Things started off with a bang for the Northwestern men as freshman Carter Page broke a pool record in the first swim of his college career. Page went 9:26.97 to win the 1000 free, getting just .04 under the old pool record of 9:27.01.
Page would return to win the 500 free in 4:38.89, one of four Wildcats to win multiple events on the day.
Junior Andrew Jovanovic led the way with a trio of wins: the 100 back (50.60), 100 free (46.43) and 100 fly (50.21).
The UIC Flames won all of their duals besides the one with Northwestern, and had senior breaststroker Christian Grobe to thank. Grobe was 58.97 to win the 100 breast and 2:07.34 to complete a breaststroke sweep in the 200.
Other dual-even winners included Northwestern’s Jonathan Lieberman (1:42.17 in the 200 free, 1:52.89 in the 200 back) and Justin Hanson (1:52.41 in the 200 fly, 1:55.26 in the 200 IM).
Women’s Meet
The women’s meet saw pool records fall in 3 of the first 4 events, two of them courtesy of Northwestern’s Lacey Locke.
Locke staked her team to a full-second lead in the 200 medley relay with her backstroke split of 26.24, and the team held on for the win in 1:45.05, shattering eight tenths off the old pool record.
Just a few events later, Locke rocked a 55.45 win in the 100 backstroke, once again breaking a pool record. The old record belonged to Chicago’s Melissa Bischoff from last year; Bischoff was second in this race at 58.16.
In between, UIC’s Brie Hines broke a pool record of her own, going 10:03.49 to win the 1000 free. That took more than 10 seconds off the 6-year-old record.
Hines would go on to win the 500 free as well, going 4:57.14, just over half a second off another pool record.
Northwestern won the meet handily, with help from junior Annika Winsnes. Winsnes was 1:51.41 in winning the 200 free early, then took the 50 free only a few races later in 24.08. Also doubling up for the Wildcats was junior Melissa Postoll, who went 2:02.86 in the 200 back and 2:07.20 in the 200 IM.
Denison also picked up one win as a team, with sophomore Halli Garza going 2:04.02 to pace the 200 fly. That helped the Big Red win their duals with UIC and Chicago for second place overall in the quad.