The Northern Michigan University swim teams hosted Division I University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (UWGB) Phoenix in a dual meet this past Saturday, and both came away with the win.
Coach Heidi Voigt explained how a win over a D1 team like UWGB is important for the program, and how it’s important for getting better throughout the
season.
“It’s really important,” Voigt said. “It’s good competition for us, they are a good team to go up against.”
Voigt also explained the importance for the landscape of
recruiting.
“It helps to be on top of Division II,” Voigt said. “We recruit people who are on the bubble of Division I and Division II, they are looking at both. It’s great to say we compete against these schools and especially that we beat some of these schools. It shows them that you can be at a higher level in D2, you don’t have to have that D1 part.”
The men’s team defeated UWGB 164-132, as this is the second year in a row that the Wildcats have defeated the Phoenix. The men finished the year with an incredible undefeated record in dual meets.
In the first event of the meet, NMU took home the win in the 200-yard medley relay behind the veteran team of senior Renars Bundzis, senior Arnoldo Herrera, junior Maks Kapustin, and senior Joshua Cosgrove with a time of 1:32.79.
The Wildcats would finish strong in the final event, as they won their second relay of the day in the 400-yard freestyle relay in 3:09.67 with the team of junior Jonas Reinhold, freshman Jon Busse, Cosgrove, and junior Lajos Budai.
Individually, four Wildcats won multiple events in the meet. Senior Janne Roovers won first place in the 1,000-yard freestyle and the 500 free. Bundzis won both backstroke events, taking home the 100-yard and 200-yard titles. Herrera also won two of the same event, as he won both the 100-yard and 200-yard backstroke events.
Budai was the fourth and final Wildcat to win multiple events when he got first place in both freestyle events.
The NMU men would get two more individual victories, as Busse won in the 200-yard freestyle, as well as senior Ryan Leonard won in the 200-yard individual medley.
On the women’s side, they defeated UWGB 174-120 in more of a decisive fashion, finishing the dual meet at an outstanding 8-1 record.
