Northern Michigan University men’s swimmer Leo Nolles celebrates in the pool after a race earlier this season. (Photo courtesy NMU)

HOLLAND — Today will be the second day for the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams from Northern Michigan University at the four-day-long conference championship meet being held at the Holland Aquatic Center in the Lower Peninsula.

Beginning Friday with six finals including men’s one-meter diving, each day at the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships will include morning preliminaries in various events with the finals of those events and several others later that day.

Today was to open with the 100-yard butterfly, 200 freestyle, 400 individual medley and women’s three-meter diving, with finals in those events plus the 400 medley relay tonight.

The final day Monday includes the grueling 1,000 free and 1,650 free events, along with women’s one-meter diving and the always exciting 400 free relay.

NMU’s teams, both women and men, are ranked No. 2 in the league behind Grand Valley State. Nationally in NCAA Division II, Northern women’s diving is ranked No. 5 led by top-ranked diver Kalina Ceglinski, while the men divers are No. 11 nationally. Both swim teams also have a No. 11 rating in the country.

Fans can watch the action on Flo Swimming, with a link at the NMU athletics website at nmuwildcats.com and looking under the men’s or women’s swimming and diving schedule.

One of the tough jobs for veteran head coach Heidi Voigt is deciding who swims where, including with how the schedule of events is held.

“It’s incredibly hard, and it’s been so stressful, and at some point I just need to know that someone I chose to bring is going to go super fast,” she said in an NMU Sports Information news release previewing the meet. “We have a good concept of who could be on the relays, I have about six to seven that could be the four (who swim).

“A lot of times, getting used to someone else swimming … is really important. I may have three different back-strokers on the women’s side who could be in the medley relay, so our breaststrokers have to be ready for three different tempos … and at conferences, you only get one relay, as opposed to other meets where you can have multiple. That gets tricky as well.”

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.