First off, Ballardin swam to four gold-medal victories and a runner-up silver medal while setting two meet records that each had stood for more than a decade.

That prompted officials to not only name him the GLIAC Freshman of the Year, but also the overall GLIAC Male Swimmer of the Year.

As a team, the Wildcats finished third among eight teams with 507 points. Grand Valley State won with 813.5 and Wayne State was runner-up with 622. After NMU, St. Cloud (Minnesota) State was fourth with 447.5, Saginaw Valley State fifth with 384, Davenport sixth with 273, Augustana (South Dakota) seventh with 236.5 and Lake Superior State eighth with 117.5.

NMU is currently ranked No. 11 in NCAA Division II in both men’s swimming and men’s diving.

Northern Michigan University freshman Matteo Ballardin reacts after an event during the GLIAC Championships men’s swimming and diving meet held in downstate Holland over four days from last Friday through Monday. (Photo courtesy NMU)

Ballardin, a native of Venice, Italy, opened the meet last Friday by winning one of the most grueling events in swimming, the individual medley where all four major strokes are employed. This one was the 200-yard version of the IM.

In a final heat that also included teammates Alessandro Rosatelli and Gabriel Fulconi, NMU Sports Information described the race as Ballardin narrowly leading after the first 100 yards before pulling away in the second half of the distance. Ballardin finished in 1 minute, 45.74 seconds, more than two seconds ahead of runner-up Gabriel Arias Hernandez of Wayne State in 1:47.99.

On Saturday, Ballardin broke a 13-year-old meet record in another version of the individual medley, the 400 IM. He not only won that event in 3:47.46, but broke the old record of 3:47.62 set by Piotr Jachowicz of Wayne State in 2013 and also posted the fastest time in NCAA Division II this season.

Swimming with teammate Zachary Billotte in the 400 IM finale, Ballardin had the fastest morning preliminaries time in the event. Then as described by NMU SI, he led by a body length less than halfway through the final, and for at least one point near the end, had a lead of half the length of the pool before he won by a full six seconds.

At that point, it was two golds for the freshman.

On Sunday, he was triumphant in the 200 butterfly, and this time with the Wildcats’ Rafael Schaub also in his finals race, Billardin broke another GLIAC Championships record in 1:44.63. He finished a shade over a half-second better than the previous record of 1:45.16 set by Gianni Gerrero of Grand Valley State in 2015.

There was no reason for Ballardin to rest that night, however. He came back for the night’s final event, the 800 freestyle relay where he led off for an NMU quartet that also included Daniel Khmara, Fulconi and Rosatelli.

That foursome had a narrow lead for most of the race, but used an exceptional final 200 from Rosatelli to fend off a hard-charging GVSU, according to NMU SI. The Wildcats’ group clocked 6:32.75 to beat the Lakers by 0.35 of a second.

To wrap up the meet on Monday, Ballardin earned his runner-up finish in the 200 breaststroke with a championship race time of 1:59.21. He was about a tenth of a second behind at the halfway point as Andrew Goh of GVSU won by 1.10 seconds in 1:58.11.

Here are other highlights from the meet, listed by day:

Friday

Northern senior and 2025 GLIAC Male Swimmer of the Year Leo Nolles kept up with his freshman teammate in the early going, defending his title in the 50 free with a finals time of 19.60 seconds, four-hundredths of a second ahead of Grand Valley’s Evan Scotto Divetta in 19.64.

Fellow NMU senior William LaCount just missed the podium in fourth place in 19.93, a minuscule two-hundredths of a second out of the bronze-medal third place.

The Wildcats’ Jef Leroux won the “B” final in the 50 free in 20.08.

Northern’s 200 free relay entered with the fastest time with LaCount, Fulconi, Leroux and Nolles, but had to come back from being in third place after each of the first two legs to finish second in 1:18.53, two-tenths of a second behind winner St. Cloud.

In the 200 IM that Ballardin won, Rosatelli was third in 1:48.33, 0.34 of a second out of the runner-up position and about 2 1/2 seconds behind Ballardin, while Fulconi was seventh in 1:50.35.

In one-meter diving, NMU senior Tobie Stiles was second in the preliminaries and finished third with 448.25 points, less than eight points out of second and just over 50 points shy of winner Max Wasiniak of Wayne State.

Northern’s 200 medley relay was also third for a bronze in 1:27.14, less than a second behind winner Grand Valley. The Wildcats’ contingent was Ian Rocheleau, Andrew Tease, LaCount and Nolles, who in the anchor leg brought his team back from fifth place.

Also on this day, NMU freshman Timothee Garin finished eighth in the 1,000 free in 9:22.34, about 12 seconds out of first place.

Saturday

Nolles almost joined Ballardin with two gold medals in two days, losing by just six-hundredths of a second in the 100 fly in 47.29 seconds to winner Keiran Rahmaan of GVSU in 47.23.

Rosatelli just missed the podium in fourth place in the 200 free in 1:38.65, about 1 1/4 seconds out of third, while Khmara was sixth in that event in 1:38.90.

And Billotte was eighth in 4:00.88 in the 400 IM that Ballardin set his record in.

Northern’s 200 medley relay had won silver until they were disqualified by the judges.

Sunday

On the third day, Tease also picked up a third-place bronze in the 100 breast in 54.17 seconds, almost exactly two-thirds of a second behind winner Goh of GVSU in 53.51 and less than a third of a second behind runner-up Micah Sholl of Davenport.

Schaub joined Ballardin in the 200 fly final and finished seventh in 1:50.30, a little over 3 1/2 seconds out of third.

Stiles just missed the podium for fourth place in the three-meter diving, scoring 482.80 points to miss bronze by exactly six points. Among three other Northern divers, junior Diego Carrillo had the best finish of 13th with 437.45 points.

Monday

To wrap up the meet, NMU actually did set another meet record, this time in the 400 free relay in 2:53.85, breaking the Wildcats’ own record of 2:54.13 set last year that had also been the pool record.

Not surprisingly, three members of the quartet were on both last year’s old record and this year’s new record setters — LaCount, Khmara and Nolles. Last year, the group also had Fulconi, this year it had Leroux.

This year’s Northern foursome won by exactly three-quarters of a second over GVSU in 2:54.60.

Garin picked up a runner-up silver medal in the 1,650 free in 15:27.50, about 9 1/4 seconds after winner William Debroux of Wayne State in 15:18.27.

Meanwhile, Leroux picked up bronze in the 100 free in 43.42 seconds, just four-hundredths of a second out of second place and 0.23 of a second after winner Scotto Divetta of GVSU in 43.19.

Rocheleau was fifth in the 200 back in 1:47.46, not quite a second out of third place and about 2 1/2 seconds after winner Arias Hernandez of WSU in 1:44.99.

Story contents based on Northern Michigan University Sports Information press releases

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