1/29/2023 1:08:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving, Women's Swimming and Diving
EVANSTON, Ill. – Northwestern women's swimming and diving broke seven Norris Aquatic Center records as the team recorded a triple victory over No. 25 Minnesota (200-153), Purdue (237-115) and Iowa (269-81), while the men were defeated by Purdue in a tight loss (181.5-170.5) and Minnesota (221-130). The wins bring the women to 9-1, 5-1 B1G heading into the conference championships next month.
The Wildcat women impressed from the get-go, with Justine Murdock, Hannah Brunzell, Miriam Guevara and Audrey Yu combining to win the 200-yard medley relay in a pool record time of 1:37.31.
The next event saw Lola Mull breaking the pool record in the 1000-yard freestyle in a season's best 9:41.77.
The record-breaking streak continued with Ashley Strouse (1:45.78) and Jamie Brennan (1:45.95) grabbing first and second in the 200-yard freestyle, moving the pair to sixth and seventh all-time in school history for the event.
Lindsay Ervin was next to join the pool record party with a 22.23 in the 50-yard freestyle to tie Calypso Sheridan's 2019 record and become the fifth-fastest performer in school history.
The other pool records came from the 800-yard freestyle relay (Hana Shimizu-Bowers, Ally Larson, Mull, Brennan) in a season's best 7:11.50, the 200-yard freestyle relay (Ervin, Yu, Brennan, Larson) with a 1:29.22, and the 400-yard freestyle relay (Ervin, Larson, Brennan, Riley Huddleston) in 3:16.55, a season's best time.
The Northwestern women had seven other wins throughout the two-day competition.
Guevara set a personal best of 52.71 to win the 100-yard backstroke, moving her to fourth in the Northwestern women's all-time list in the event. It was her first of two wins as she clocked a season's best 52.55 for an almost two-second victory in the 100-yard butterfly.
The graduate student was one of four double winners for the Wildcat women.
In addition to her pool record performance in the 200-yard freestyle, Strouse grabbed a win in the 500-yard freestyle with a season's best 4:44.99.
Brunzell continued to establish herself as one of the best breaststrokers in the B1G, with season's bests of 1:00.07 and 2:11.01 to sweep the 100 and 200-yard breaststroke events.
Ervin did the same in the sprint freestyle, following up her win in the 50 with a victory in the 100-yard freestyle in 48.86, a personal best and seventh-fastest in school history. The first year continued to move up the record board later in the session with a 48.77 leadoff leg in the 400-yard freestyle relay, good for fifth in Northwestern women's history.
Shimizu-Bowers was another winner at the meet, capturing the 200-yard butterfly in a personal best of 1:57.38, moving up to fourth all-time.
On the men's side, wins came from Tyler Lu and Ben Miller.
Lu was a double winner, touching first in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 47.36 and the 200-yard individual medley in 1:45.69. The sophom*ore also had a second-place finish in the 200-yard backstroke (1:44.50).
Miller stretched his unbeaten streak in the 200-yard butterfly to four meets, winning the event in a personal best time of 1:43.27. The senior also broke into the all-time top-10 this weekend in the 100-yard butterfly with a personal best of 47.78 to finish third.
Marcus Mok was also a top performer for the Wildcat men with second-place finishes and season's bests in the 100 and 200-yard breaststrokes with times of 53.99 and 1:55.76, respectively. The senior had a third top-three finish in the 200-yard individual medley in a season's best 1:47.21 to finish third.
The Northwestern men also had third-place finishes from Tona Zinn (200-yard butterfly and 400-yard individual medley), Henry Schirmer (3-meter diving), Ethan Churilla (50-yard freestyle), Alex Mo (1-meter diving), and in the 200, 400 and 800-yard freestyle relays and the 200-yard medley relay.
Next for the Wildcats will be the B1G Championships in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The women compete from Feb. 15-18, while men compete a week later from Feb. 22-25.
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