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Northern Michigan University women’s swim relay team sets pool record at Skins contest, dual meet vs. Michigan Tech club team

Michaela Nelson

MARQUETTE — A pool record was broken when the Northern Michigan University men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams held a home meet against the Michigan Tech club team and conducted its own intrasquad Skins contest on Saturday at the PEIF pool.

The record came in the women’s 200-yard freestyle relay by Michaela Nelson, Donna Hannig, Pilar Perello-Ferrer and Olivia Haerr in 1 minute, 34.96 seconds.

The Wildcats dominated in the meet against Tech, while in the Skins contest, a series of knockout races were held where two people were removed each round until two were left who battled it out for the championship.

For the women, Haerr went up against Nelson in the finals with Nelson emerging victorious, and for the men, Will LaCount and Leo Nolles were the last two standing — er, swimming — with Nolles becoming champ.

These Wildcats teams are readying for the GLIAC Championships set for Feb. 15-18 at the downstate Holland Aquatic Center.

Donna Hannig

The NMU women are defending GLIAC champions as the men were runners-up in 2022.

On Saturday, the 100 individual medley opened the meet and was typical of the day where NMU had the top 20 women’s and top 26 men’s times.

Wildcats women Nelson, Jenna Joerger and Zoe DeKievit led their race, all under 1:01.30, while Northern men LaCount, Nolles and Daniel Lopez-Aponte finished first, LaCount knocking more than eight seconds off his seeding time.

Winning the 200 medley relay were the women’s Camilla Carbone, DeKievit, Meritxell Font-Cantarero and Haerr in 1:46.39 and men’s Thibault Auger, Andrew Tease, Ryan Lund and Nolles in 1:37.88.

Top point getters in one-meter diving were the NMU women’s Abbie Harned, Lauren Plockmeyer and Izzy McCabe with scores ranging from 188.38 to 234.59 points. Competing for the Northern men was Tobie Stiles scoring 242.32 and Logan Boynton with 155.25.

Pilar Perello-Ferrer

Nadia Helm, Hannig and Emilia Morris went 1-2-3 in the 200 free as NMU carried the top seven women’s places, while the Wildcats’ Daniel Khmara, Caleb Rice and Max Swiatkowski were the fastest three for the men with Swiatkowski dropping 0.34 of a second from his seed time.

NMU’s Mia Strazny won in 27.91 seconds and Lauren Melendez-Rivero was runner-up in 30.18 in the women’s 50 backstroke, while Auger, Ian Rocheleau and Kyle Griswold went 1-2-3 for the Northern men in that event.

Men’s winner LaCount and NMU teammate and women’s third-place finisher Jillian McKinley dropped significant times from their seeding in the 50 breaststroke.

In the 100 butterfly, Font-Cantarero and Joerger were the fastest women and Lund and Lowery the same for the men. In the 50 free, it was Nelson in 24.19 and Nolles in 20.73 winning, while Harned and Stiles won each three-meter diving event.

Helm, Perello-Ferrer and Hannig led an NMU top-six sweep of the women’s 100 free, while LaCount, Khmara and Dean Ramsbottom were the first three in for the men, all from Northern.

Olivia Haerr

Carbone, Sill and Strazny all clocked under a minute in the women’s 100 back, while Auger, Ian Rocheleau and Erikas Kapocius topped the men in that event.

DeKievit, Nelson and DeCarlo swept the top three in the women’s 100 breast, Nelson dropping her seed time by 1.76 seconds, while Tease, Niels Callewaert and Lopez-Aponte were the first three for the men.

Topping the 500 free were NMU sweeps with Font-Cantarero, Caitlin Aarseth and Vanessa Steigauf for the women and Logan Robillard, Jasper Pullinen and Lowery for the men.

And in the 50 fly, Lund, Ben Stolberg and Martin Womarans led the NMU men, while McKinley, Melendez-Rivero and Maria Arakelian did so for the Northern women.

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

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