From left, Northern Michigan University’s three honorees for GLIAC weekly honors were Matteo Ballardin, Tobie Stiles and Kalina Ceglinski. (Photo illustration courtesy NMU)

MARQUETTE — Three members of the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams at Northern Michigan University have earned weekly honors from the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

From the Wildcat men’s team, Matteo Ballardin was named the GLIAC Male Swimmer of the Week and Tobie Stiles the GLIAC Male Diver of the Week, while from the NMU women’s team, Kalina Ceglinski won GLIAC Female Diver of the Week.

All three starred at the three-day-long Calvin Invitational held at the Grand Rapids university ending on Saturday.

Ballardin, a freshman from Venice, Italy, led the Northern men with 96 points he scored individually, competing in a half-dozen events. He won three individual events, first qualifying in morning preliminaries before swimming the fastest of every competitor in the 200-yard individual medley on Thursday, the 400 IM on Friday and the 200 butterfly on Saturday.

He also helped NMU score points in three relays — the seventh-place 400 medley “B” team, the ninth-place 200 medley “B” squad and the third-place 800 freestyle relay team.

Ballardin is fifth in the conference in overall points scored and has the third-fastest 200 IM time of 1:45.63 and fifth-fastest 200 fly clocking of 1:45.48, each posted in Grand Rapids.

“Matteo swam great last weekend,” Northern men’s and women’s head coach Heidi Voigt said in an NMU Sports Information news release about the awards. “He had really smart race strategies, and I know he has more in the tank for the conference championships and NCAAs.” 

Stiles, a senior from Lindstrom, Minnesota, who is a past All-American at the NCAA Championships, earned the full 64 points he could score in four diving events, winning them all for his second GLIAC weekly honor this fall.

In the three-meter diving on Friday, he won the morning preliminaries with 467.25 points and the evening finals with 486.20, then in one-meter, won the morning prelims with 471.55 points and evening finals with 489.60.

His finals scores in both events are tops in the conference and seventh nationally.

Ceglinski, a junior from Elmhurst, Illinois, who is also a past All-American, earned 60 points for what is already her fourth GLIAC weekly honor this season.

In one-meter diving, he won the evening session on Friday with 444.15 points to beat out the competition by nearly 23 points as her morning prelims finish wasn’t available.

Then on Saturday in three-meter, she was second in the morning prelims with 408.80 before also coming in runner-up in the afternoon finals with 436.40.

Her one-meter top score leads the GLIAC and is fifth in the country, while her three-meter is second in the league and No. 8 nationally.

“Congratulations to Tobie and Kalina,” Voigt said. “They have been so solid all year, and diving coach Chris Kelly deserves a big shout-out for all of his work with our divers. He is doing a fantastic job.” 

A select group of swimmers will trek to Sarasota, Florida, on Saturday morning for the Open Water Collegiate Nationals, with the entire teams off until a dual meet at Wisconsin-Stevens Point on Jan. 17.

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