The Northern Michigan University swimming and diving team won and lost dual meets at Grand Valley State University on Feb. 2. NMU was able to beat the Hillsdale Chargers 131-98 but fell to GVSU 144-82.
Freshman Kelli Vander Baan was the only Wildcat to outright win an event. Vander Baan won both diving events, scoring 246.6 points in the 3-meter dive and 246.5 points in the 1-meter.
However NMU did much better against the Chargers winning 9 of 13 events. The overall score was a big improvement for the Wildcats compared to earlier this year when NMU squeaked out a 116-110 win on Nov. 17.
Sophomore Sarah Cempel won the 1000-meter freestyle with a time of 11:37.88. Junior Emily Olson followed up with wins in 50-meter freestyle (26.65) and 100 freestyle (58.87). Senior Mimi Marschall won both the 400-meter IM (4:43.39) and the 100-meter butterfly (1:03.08). Sophomore Sarah Van Oss won the 100 breast stroke (1:13.59) and senior Sarah Dobratz took the last victory for NMU by winning the 500-meter freestyle (5:31.43).
The best moment for NMU was after the scoring for the 1 meter diving was completed. Kelli Vander Baan qualified for the NCAA Division II national championships with her score.
“I was extremely happy about qualifying for nationals,” said Vander Baan. “My entire family was there and a lot of my friends from down state were there too, so it was very exciting to qualify while they were there.
To qualify for nationals, a diver must hit or surpass a predetermined amount of points six times a year, according to the NCAA. Once at the national competition, a diver must compete again with all of the other qualified divers from around the country, from which the top 16 divers compete for the national title. As of January 13, 18 divers qualified nationally.
“With the conference meets coming up soon, it would not be a surprise to see that list get even bigger,” said diving coach Andy Ward. “Many swimmers have mastered their dives by this point and can get that last chance dive to give them the points high enough to give them enough to qualify.”
A good example of that is Kara Vander Baan, the other NMU diver. Kara needs just one more dive of 245 points or more to make it to nationals. Like many other divers around the country, the conference meet will be the final opportunity for her.
Vander Baan will have her chance for nationals soon as her and the rest of the Wildcats travel to the University of Indianapolis for the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) championships starting Feb.13.
