Leo Nolles, 22, who competed as a junior for the Wildcats in the 2024-25 campaign, placed well into the top half of the field in a pair of his best events, the men’s 50- and 100-meter freestyle.

He was representing his home country, Uruguay, with places in the 40s in fields of well over 100 swimmers.

On July 29, he swam in one of 13 heats for the 50 free, coming up with a time of 22.60 seconds to place 45th out of 116 competitors when all times were combined.

The top 16 advanced to the semifinals, with the cutoff time of 21.91 seconds, which Nolles missed by just under three-quarters of a second. The winning time in the finals was 21.14 seconds, posted by Cameron McEvoy of Australia.

Last Thursday, he swam in one of a dozen 100 free heats and clocked 50.04 seconds to place 42nd out of 110. That 16th-place cutoff was 48.33, meaning he was just under 1 3/4 seconds away from that position. The winning time was 46.51 by David Popovici of Romania, which set European and World Aquatics records.

Nolles also represented his South American country at the 2024 Paris Olympics while also competing at the World Aquatics the past two years, too.

The reigning GLIAC Men’s Swimmer of the Year, his times can’t quite be compared to those with his podium finishes at the NCAA Division II Championships held in March, since those college events were measured in yards, rather than meters like in most international competition.

Nevertheless, Nolles easily earned All-American honors in his two expert events, finishing third in the NCAA meet in the 50-yard free in 19.54 seconds, missing victory by less than half a second, and also taking third in the 100 free in 42.71 seconds, missing that triumph by less than three-tenths of a second.

Story contents based on Northern Michigan University Sports Information press release reviewing the

meet. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.