Contact:
Ashleigh Jones, Sports Information Graduate Assistant
Jan. 20, 2018- The North Central College Cardinals men's and women's swimming and diving team swam hard and fast in its dual meet against Illinois College. With emotions high with the final home meet of the season for senior swimmers
Emily Manikas and
Emily Vargo, the men's and women's team took to the water ready and waiting to take on their opponents.
The men's 400-yard medley relay opened the meet with two Cardinal relays represented in the heat. The team of
Ryan Lewellyan,
Nick Mielke,
Austin Blaser, and
Nicholas Slinkman were just barely edged out of the first-place finish by Illinois College. Finishing with the time of 4:02.25.
Mielke and Blaser built off their relay success just a couple heats when they swept first (23.34) and second-place (23.60) respectively in the men's 50-yard freestyle.
Along with the first-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle, Mielke earned first place in the 500-yard freestyle, with a time of 5:20.53.
Not to be outdone Blaser and Lewellyan earned second and third-place in the 100-yard butterfly with final times of 1:00.52 and 1:01.75 respectively.
Cameron Teel swam a strong 100-yard backstroke with the time of 1:06.22, besting his seedtime.
Though the men's team struggled to hold off Illinois College in the individual heats, they finished with a strong second-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay. With the team of Mielke, Slinkman, Blaser and
Luke Gentile, they finished just a second after the Blueboys with a time of 1:36.51.
Men's Swimming Team Scores
North Central College 31
Illinois College 62
The women's team extended its win streak to five, with the help of multiple first-place finishes in both the relays and individual heats.
With the team of
Katherine Canfield,
Marissa Hoppe,
Beth Ryan and
Samantha Kruzel the Cardinals conquered the water early finishing with a time of 4:13.49 in the 400-yard medley relay, a whole 22 seconds faster than the second place team.
Kruzel finished the evening with two more individual first-place wins in the 1000-yard freestyle (12:08.26) and helped sweep the 100-yard butterfly with her first-place finish (1:09.33). Teammates
Hannah Downing and
Amy Feltz earned second (1:09.84) and third-place (1:12.3) respectively in the 100-yard butterfly.
Feltz and Downing with the help of Ryan stole the top three spots in the 50-yard freestyle. Ryan took first (25.83), followed by Feltz (26.50) and then Downing (28.26) pushing out the Lady Blues by a fraction of a second.
With practically flew by her competitors in the 100-yard freestyle finishing in first with the time of 56.22.
Continuing its dominance the women's team earned a first and third-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke, led by
Katherine Canfield (1:01.97) and followed by
Naomi Hill for third-place (1:17.43).
Both Canfield and Hill found themselves in the top three later in the meet, with another first place finish in the 400-yard individual medley by Canfield (5:04.17) and a second-place finish for Hill in the 200-yard freestyle (2:21.90).
Emily Vargo also found success in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:24.23 earning her third-place.
Danai Stylianou earned the final first-place finish in the individual heats in the 500-yard freestyle. With a time of 5:40.79. Stylianou finished about 15 seconds faster than the second place finisher from Illinois College.
Closing out the meet the Cardinals much like in their previous meets finished strong earning first place in the 200-yard freestyle relay. With a time of 1:45.82, Feltz, Kruzel, Canfield and Ryan beat out the second-place team by about 7 seconds.
Women's Swimming Team Scores
North Central College: 67
Illinois College: 27
With just two more regular season meets left, the North Central College men's and women's swimming and diving team are looking to close out the season strong. The Cardinals travel to Bloomington, Ill. on Friday, January 26 to compete in a Tri-meet against Illinois Wesleyan University and Millikin University. Meet time is to be determined.
