Over the weekend, the NMU swim and dive team travled down to compete against 17 ranked women’s team, while the men are ranked 10th, Saginaw Valley State, and 14 ranked women’s and 20th-ranked men’s Findlay both on Saturday, before facing off against the number four-ranked and GLIAC rival Grand Valley State.
“ I think we had a great weekend.We had three meets and we won two out of three and we did lose against Grand Valley, but their men are the fourth in the country, and we went in there and I think performed really well. Head coach Heidi Voight said.
NMU Women’s swim and dive is currently ranked 10th, and Men’s is ranked 8th.
The Wildcats were able to come away with two out of three wins for the weekend, beating both Saginaw Valley 139-98 and Findlay, coming out on top 132-108 for the Women in the pool. The men of the Wildcats also got their wins in the pool on Saturday. First in a close match in Saginaw Valley, the Men Wildcats were able to swim to the finish line faster, ending 125-118. Over Findlay, the Wildcats scored 120-112 over Findlay, another close match-up in the pool.
In the match, Wildcat senior Andrew Tease placed first in the 100-meter breast with a final time of 55.78. Three women Wildcats took first, second, and third place in the 3-meter dive. In first place was junior diver Kalina Ceglinski with a final score of 253.95. Ceglinski was followed by freshman Lillian Marx, coming in second with a score of 235.30 and in third place was freshman Grace Daly with coming in with 221.75 final score.
Another Wildcat first place in this match came from Leo Noelles in the 50-yard freestyle, placing first with a final time of 20 seconds flat. A crisp 49 seconds later for second place was Wildcat William LaCount.
“We just had great competition all around and I’m really glad to have won those by the skin of our teeth on a couple of them… the wonderful thing about swimming is that when you have individual events and people are watching and somebody has a great race, then it’s inspiring for the next person. So no one’s hanging their head for sure. They’re pretty excited for the people that performed really well,” Voight said.
Both men and women fell to Grand Valley overall, with the Men scoring 63 points to Grand Valley 178 while the Women were at 104 for nmu and 138 for Grand Valley overall.
While overall the Wildcats weren’t able to come away with the win there were individual and team races where the Cats were victorious. Senior Evie DeCarlo placed first in the 200 yard individual medley with her time of 2:07. For the men in the same meet, 200-yard IM, the Wildcats also placed first with freshman Matto Ballardin with a time of 1:49 getting the first place finish by 12 seconds.
Ballardin also placed first in the Men’s 200-yard butterfly coming in with a time of 1:49. In the Womens 500 yard freestyle two Wildcats went back-to-back for first and second finishes. In First place was junior Anika Wright with a time of 5:07. In second place for the Wildcats was junior Carlotta Santi, coming in at 5:10.
Finally, again was Kalina Ceglinski who came in first place for both her dives in the 1 and 3 meter. This performance combined with the pervious match with SVSU and Findlay, earned Ceglinski GLIAC Diver of the Week.
“A couple of them had, some really good times right off the bus and after a big meet, they’re all sore and tired,” Voight said.
The team is off this weekend but will back in the pool at home next weekend as GLIAC rival and 13-ranked Wayne State comes into town.
That meet will take place over the course of two days. The first meet will start on Friday November 7th at 5 pm and then again on Saturday, the 8th at 10 am.
