Northern Michigan University men’s and women’s swimmers crowd the pool near the starting blocks during the Green vs. Gold and Wildcat Alumni meets held at the PEIF Pool in Marquette in mid-September. (Photo courtesy NMU)

MARQUETTE — The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams at Northern Michigan University head downstate for one of their biggest meets of the season starting Thursday morning.

The three-day-long Calvin Invitational takes place at that university’s Venema Aquatic Center in Grand Rapids, with 10 a.m. qualifiers before the evening finals in the same events take place at 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday and at 4 p.m. Saturday.

Each day of the meet will be live streamed on the Calvin Athletics YouTube page at https://www.youtube.com/@CalvinKnights/streams, or follow along with live results on the mobile app Meet Mobile.

Fans can also visit the NMU athletics site, nmuwildcats.com, under the men’s or women’s swimming schedule for links to a meet preview and history.

The field includes NMU’s NCAA Division II foes Grand Valley State and Findlay, along with Division III Calvin and Lawrence, and also NAIA program Indiana Wesleyan.

The Wildcats should be considered at least one of the favorites, considering that the Northern men swimmers are ranked No. 8 in the nation and No. 10 in diving in Division II, with the NMU women swimmers No. 10 and its divers No. 5.

But they aren’t the only nationally ranked units coming to Calvin. Among the men, Grand Valley has the No. 4 swimmers and No. 2 divers and Findlay the No. 10 swimmers and No. 21 divers in Division II, while Calvin is No. 10 in Division III and Indiana Wesleyan No. 10 in the NAIA.

Among women’s teams, GVSU is again No. 4 in swimming and No. 2 in diving and Findlay has the No. 11 swimmers in Division II, while Calvin is No. 17 in Division III and Indiana Wesleyan No. 10 in the NAIA.

Story contents based on Northern Michigan University Sports Information press release previewing the meet. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.