Contact: Ashleigh Jones, Sports Information Graduate Assistant
 
Feb. 4, 2018- The North Central College men's and women's swimming and diving team looked to close out their regular season strong at the Wheaton College Triangular facing Augustana College and the host of the meet Wheaton College. The women's team flourished placing at least one swimmer in the top three in all but two events. The men's team however struggled to find success only placing in four of the meet's events.
 
The men's team in all of the freestyle heats from the 50-yard to the 1000-yard, were only able to break into the top 10 spots for the 50 and 100-yard freestyle.
 
Not until the 100-yard breaststroke did the Cardinals find success, thanks to the speed of Nick Mielke. Mielke finished second in the 100-yard breaststroke with a final time of 1:02.71 beating out his seed time by one-tenth of a second and just two-tenths of a second faster than the third-place finisher.
 
Luke Gentile also found success swimming the breaststroke, specifically in the 200-yard heat. Gentile earned third-place with a time of 2:35.32.
 
Along with Gentile's third-place finish North Central's Nicholas Slinkman also earned third in the 200-yard butterfly finishing with a time of 2:30.36.
 
Despite facing tough competition and much defeat, the Cardinals pulled off one more second-place finish just before the 200-yard freestyle relay. Ryan Lewellyan took second place in the 400-yard individual medley with the time of 4:59.11.
 
Men's Team Scores

North Central College: 61	Wheaton College: 160
North Central College: 54	Augustana College: 186

 
 
With the men's team struggling to find its rhythm, the women's swimming and diving team took to the waters with determination.
 
 
To open the meet Beth Ryan earned back-to-back second-place finishes in the 50-yard freestyle (26.06), and the 100-yard freestyle (56.61). Both of her second-place finishes were less than a millisecond difference from first place.
 
Though the Cardinals struggled in the 200 and 500-yard freestyle heats, redemption was swift in the 1000-yard freestyle. Naomi Hill earned second-place with a time of 12:33.01, and was followed by a solid third-place finish by Jennifer Hufnagle (14.25.43).
 
After the 1000-yard freestyle heat, North Central remained on top earning first place finishes in eight of the remaining nine events.
 
Katherine Canfield secured three first-place finishes individually, in the 100-yard backstroke (1:00.58), the 200-yard backstroke (2:15.95), and the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:18.91.
 
The first-place finishes kept on rolling in with Marissa Hoppe earning consecutive first place finishes in the 100 and 200-yard breaststroke with times of 1:11.75 and 2:41.71 respectively.
 
Ryan also finished first in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:01.11, finishing with over four seconds faster than the second-place finisher.
 
The 200-yard butterfly turned out to be even better for the Cardinals as Samantha Kruzel finished first with a time of 2:30.33, shaving five seconds from her seed time and Hannah Downing finishing third with a time of 2:37.00.
 
North Central did not stop there, with just two events left the Cardinals managed to close out its opponents emphatically.
 
Hoppe and Downing earned second and third-place in the 400-yard individual medley with the times of 5:19.42 and 5:31.41 respectively.
 
While just minutes later the team of Amy Feltz, Canfield, Kruzel and Ryan took to the waters and outswam their opponents in the 200-yard freestyle relay. By just edging out their opponents with a time of 1:44.36, North Central earned first place to solidify their victory.
 
 
Women's Team Scores

North Central College: 138	Wheaton College: 112
North Central College: 137	Augustana College: 113

 
 
The North Central College men's and women's swimming and diving team will be back in the waters on February 15 through the February 17 in Pleasant Prairie, Wis. for the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Championship. Meet time is set for 10:30 AM.