Contact: Ashleigh Jones, Sports Information Graduate Assistant

Dec. 2, 2017 (CHICAGO, Ill.)- The North Central College men's and women's swimming and diving team combined to earn a coveted second place finish in Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) Ted Erikson Invitational.
 
The Cardinals combined score of 221 was just 2.5 points above Lincoln College, but thanks to a strong performance by the North Central women's team that was just enough to remain on top.
   
The North Central's women's team controlled the invitational's top spots from the very beginning of the meet with a first-place finish in the 200-yard medley relay.
 
The first-place relay team included Katherine Canfield, Marissa Hoppe, Beth Ryan, and Amy Feltz; with a time of 1:54.48 almost a whole two seconds over the second-place team.
 
The Cardinals' success continued throughout the meet in individual heats as well. As a team, North Central finished with four more first-place finishes, four second-place finishes and five total fourth and fifth-place finishes.
 
Among the first-place winners, Katherine Canfield earned two. One in the 100-yard backstroke (1:00.29) and the other in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:19.01.
 
Danai Stylianou earned the third, first-place finish in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:23.12. Samantha Kruzel joined Stylianou as a top-five finisher. With the time of 2:25.44, putting Kruzel in the fourth-place spot just 64 hundredths of a second behind third-place.
 
The fourth, first-place finisher was Marissa Hoppe, in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:14.17, beating out the second-place opponent by less than 51 hundredths of a second.
 
Hoppe and Kruzel continued their strong meet performance with second-place finishes in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:49.29) and 200-yard freestyle (2:07.78) respectively.
 
Not to be outdone Ryan earned two more second-place finishes in the 50-yard (26.19) and 100-yard freestyle (56.41) heats. In both freestyle heats Feltz assisted in the Cardinals continued dominance with a fourth (26.90) and fifth-place (59.65) finish respectively. Stylianou also earned a respectable fourth place in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 57.90.
 
Clinching the overall second-place spot for the invitational was confirmed with the one, two sweep in the final 200-yard freestyle relay. The first-place team included Stylianou, Hoppe, Naomi Hill, and Emily Manikas with a time of 1:44.44.
 
Their teammates Ryan, Canfield, Kruzel, and Feltz were just a second behind with a time of 1:45.94. With such a successful showcasing of speed, the Cardinals accumulated a substantial amount of points over their opponents.
 
Women's Team Scores:

Team	Score
Illinois Tech	194
North Central College	151
Lincoln College	108
Beloit College	71
Manchester University	67

 
The North Central men's team struggled to find the same success as the women; only earning one first-place finish and four, fourth and fifth place finishes.
 
Opening the meet with a fourth-place finish, the team of Ryan Lewellyan, Nick Mielke, Ian Greenway, and Austin Blaser swam a time of 1:48.08.
 
The Cardinals continued to earn top-five finishes in the 1000-yard freestyle, 100-yard backstroke, the 100-yard breaststroke, the 200-yard breaststroke and the 200-yard freestyle relay.
 
Nicholas Slinkman took on the 1000-yard freestyle swimming a time of 12:40.50, earning him a fourth-place finish.
 
Lewellyan swam the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:04.49 just four seconds behind the third-place finisher.
 
Success did find North Central with a first-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke. Mielke swam it in 1:04.13 and was joined by Luke Gentile in the top five with a time of 1:11.55 with a fifth-place finish. Gentile also earned fifth-place in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:41.78.
 
Similar to how the invitational started the Cardinals earned fourth-place in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:38.80) which included Mielke, Gentile, Slinkman, and Blaser.
 
Despite a tough loss in for the men's team, its efforts did play a crucial role in earning an overall combined second-place finish.
 
Men's Team Scores:

Team	Score
Illinois Tech	296
Lincoln College	110.5
Manchester University	77.75
North Central College	70
Beloit College	58.75

 
The Cardinals next meet takes place on Saturday, Dec. 9, when they compete in Jacksonville, Ill. for the Illinois College Quad. Start time is set for 1 PM.