The NMU Swimming and Diving teams met over the weekend to participate in the annual Intrasquad Meet and Skins competition as part of their Senior Day festivities. Three Wildcat senior swimmers were recognized for their careers of excellence, both in and out of the pool: Hannah Crump (Grand Rapids), Dan Szuba (White Lake) and David Wulffe (Wheaton, Illinois).

The first leg of the Skins race qualifier began on the women’s side with every swimmer competing in the 100-yard individual medley. From there the top eight qualifying swimmers would compete head to head in traditional events such as 200-yard individual medley, 200-yard backstroke medley and 100-yard butterfly stroke, as selected at random by Crump, Szuba and Wulffe, who took turns drawing competetion events out of a winter hat.

The eight women competing for the title were sophomore Rachel Helm, junior Sara Foucault, freshman Katharina Springhetti, junior Becca Arakelian, freshman Cassandra Clark, sophomore Victoria Reese, junior Regan Kilburn and freshman Margaret Vaitkus.

For the men’s competition, the eight qualifying swimmers were junior Ryan Knox-Leonard, sophomore Lajos Budai, junior Estaban Guttierrez, junior Renars Bundzis, junior Arnoldo Herrera, sophomore Jonas Reinhold, junior Joshua Cosgrove and junior David Miranda.

In the final round in the women’s bracket Helm would defeat Springhetti in nail-biting fashion with a score of 31.00 seconds to 31.63.

Over on the men’s championship side, Bunzis edged out Budai by a fingertip as he touched the wall first to propel himself to a 28.04 second to 28.18 victory.

Next up for the Wildcats is the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships taking place February 14-17 at Jenison Senior High School in Jenison, Michigan.

After that, the Wildcats will send their best swimmers to Greensboro, North Carolina to compete at the NCAA Championships.