The NMU Men’s and Women’s Swim and Dive teams are getting ready for the biggest competition of the year: the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Championships. 

Only five weeks separate the Wildcats from the championships, and they’ve had a pretty good year so far, as both teams are ranked in the top 15 nationally. NMU went to Florida for a training trip over Christmas break, and Head Coach Heidi Voigt was happy with how it went.

“The trip went super well with nice weather and no injuries,” Voigt said. “Our team adapted to the environment quickly and overall we had a good training trip.”

 Last weekend, Wildcats traveled to Green Bay, Wisconsin to compete against the Division I University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (UWGB) on Saturday, Jan. 11. Both teams fell short but each had wins individually. Senior Lajos Budai won the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 51.62, and freshman Ivan Amillo Escobedo won the 200-yard freestyle at a time of 1:44.03 for the men. On the women’s side, freshman Maria Arakelian won the 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:35.51. Freshman Meritxell Font Cantarero won the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:07.96, and Michaela Nelson won the 200-yard IM with a time of 2:09.82. On the diving boards, Wildcats got the top three spots with Mary Grossman, Amanda Baird and Jamie Kimble. 

“We swam well, we had several people had season bests, but we struggled in the last yards of the races,” Voigt said.

The ‘Cats are back at the pool at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 18 for the Wildcat Intrasquad and Skins Meet. During the meet, four senior men and three senior women will be honored, as it is the final home meet of the season. This will serve as a tune-up before the GLIAC Championships, and the team’s focus will be geared to being successful at that meet.

“We need to keep training hard like we did all season long,” Voigt said. “It is all about the mindset, attitude and effort. If we have those, we will be great.”