Ondrej Zach

MARQUETTE — The Northern Michigan University swimming and diving teams are both ranked in the top 25 in the NCAA Division II Preseason Swimming & Diving Polls that were compiled by the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America.

The Wildcat women’s team is ranked No. 10, while the men came in at No. 12.

Though the poll is listed as a preseason poll, both NMU teams have already put together a double set of wins, defeating St. Cloud State and Davenport at Northern’s PEIF pool on Oct. 8-9.

NMU’s women won eight individual and two relay events and were part of three mixed relay wins with the men, who have featured four pool records already this season.

Those records were set by Ondrej Zach in the 1,000-yard freestyle in the St. Cloud-Davenport weekend and three in the Green and Gold intrasquad meet the previous weekend — Zach in the 500 free, Thibault Auger in the 50 backstroke and Erikas Kapocius in the 200 individual medley.

The CSCAA poll is the first released since the 2019-20 season due to the coronavirus pandemic and is voted on by Division II coaches and select media outlets.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.