Contact: Ashleigh Jones, Sports Information Graduate Assistant
 
Jan. 15, 2018- The North Central College men's and women's swimming and diving team took to the waters to compete in the first of two home hosted duals this season. With the advantage of swimming in their pool, the Cardinals' women's team outswam the Lynx with ease, while the men struggled to find the same success.
 
The women's team outscored its opponent by 40 points, utilizing one of its strongest events, the 200-yard medley relay to jump in front early on the leaderboard. Swimming to first the team of
Katherine Canfield, Marissa Hoppe, Beth Ryan and Amy Feltz finished with the time of 1:54.08.
 
In the 200-yard freestyle, Danai Stylianou earned a first-place finish with the time of 2:07.01, which was emphasized by the fact that the next swimmer came in over 10 seconds after her.
 
The women's team continued their route over Lincoln College in the 100-yard backstroke and breaststroke. Canfield earned a first-place finish with the time of 1:00.47 in the 100-yard backstroke and then Hoppe (1:10.75) and Feltz (1:16.71) took first and second place respectively in the breaststroke.
 
The Cardinals remained on top after the 200-yard butterfly with a first-place win by Samantha Kruzel with the time of 2:35.05. A win that was quickly followed by another first-place finish by Ryan in the 50-yard freestyle (25.81).
 
In the second half of the meet, it became clear that the women's team would finish the meet with a strong first place win, swimming to first-place in six of the last events both in individual and relay.
 
Feltz, swam the top time of 57.88 in the 100-yard freestyle, just before Canfield continued her domination in the 200-yard backstroke swimming a time of 2:14.71 to earn first-place.
 
Hoppe took on the Lynx head-on in the 200-yard breaststroke and with the time of 2:35.63 she blew past her opponents, finishing almost 20 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher; thus earning her third first-place finish of the meet.
 
Finishing out the meet with confidence North Central took its last three first-place finishes in the 100-yard butterfly, the 200-yard individual medley, and the 400-yard freestyle relay. Ryan swam a 1:00.80 in the 100-yard butterfly, Stylianou earned her second, first-place finish in the 200-yard individual medley (2:24.70) and the team of Canfield, Kruzel, Ryan, and Feltz swam a 3:54.35 for the 400-yard freestyle relay.
 
Women's Swimming Team Scores
North Central College                         77
Lincoln College                                       37
 
Despite the success of the women's team and having a home pool advantage, the men's swimming team struggled to find its stroke in time to close the point differential.
 
To start the meet, North Central was just barely edged out by the Lynx in the 200-Yard Medley Relay with a time of 1:47.76 by the team of Austin Blaser, Austin Blaser, Ryan Lewellyan and Luke Gentile.
 
Redemption came swiftly with a first-place finish by Blaser in 200-yard freestyle with the time of 2:02.39.
 
Despite earning three more first-place finishes in the meet, the Cardinals still could not push ahead. Mielke won two of the three first-place finishes, the first in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:02.81) and the other in the 200- yard breaststroke (2:22.64).
 
Nicholas Slinkman won North Central's final first-place finish in the 200-yard butterfly with the time of 2:35.77.
 
Looking to finish the home meet strong the Cardinals went on to earn three other second-place finishes, though it was not enough to beat Lincoln College their efforts did close the gap.
 
Senior sprinter Tabin Vrba earned second-place 100-yard freestyle finishing it in 59.37. While teammate Lewellyan finished the 100-Yard Butterfly in 1:00.37, earning him a second-place finish.
 
Closing out the meet North Central swam neck and neck with Lincoln College in the 400-yard freestyle relay. Though they started off strong, the Cardinals fell behind and could not recover fast enough to beat the Lynx. With the team of Blaser, Vrba, Gentile and Mileke, North Central swam a 3:37.44, just three seconds after the first-place relay team of Lincoln College.
 
Men's Swimming Scores
North Central College               38
Lincoln College                             65
 
North Central swimming and diving returns to Merner Field House to host its final home meet of the season on Saturday, January 20 at 2 pm.