The Northern Michigan University men’s 200-yard freestyle team, in the middle with forest green jackets and William LaCount, left, and Leo Nolles standing in front, poses with their trophies at the NCAA Division II Championships in Evansville, Ind., on Friday. (Photo courtesy NMU)

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — The All-American honors were coming up like a bumper crop at fall harvest for the men’s swimming and diving team at Northern Michigan University.

NMU won an amazing 15 of those honors at the five-day-long NCAA Division II Championships in the sport in southern Indiana last week. That included five relay quartets, so the actual number of swimmers and divers winning the awards was double that — 30 in all.

And senior Leo Nolles accounted for seven of them, four in relays and three in individual events, while freshman Matteo Ballardin counted six, three each way.

There were four First Team All-America honors, two by relays and one each in individual events by Nolles and Ballardin, the remainder being Second Team awards.

In the team competition, Northern finished 12th with 129 points, just 10 points behind 11th-place Grand Valley State also from the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. St. Cloud State, a men’s GLIAC member in swimming, was 13th with 83, while Wayne State tied for 14th with 81 and Davenport 23rd with 24.

Tampa (Florida) won the meet with 522.5 points, just ahead of runner-up Drury (Missouri) with 509.

Here is a day-by-day rundown of the meet for MU:

Tuesday

Only one men’s event was held on this day, but that was all the Wildcats needed to start their All-America spree.

NMU finished in 11th place in the 800-yard freestyle relay for a Second Team All-America prize. The quartet of Alessandro Rosatelli, Daniel Khmara, Gabriel Fulconi and Ballardin clocked 6 minutes, 30.13 seconds, dropping more than 2 1/2 seconds off their entry time to place fourth in their heat, that measured out to 11th among the 15 teams.

As reported by NMU Sports Information, Ballardin made up ground as anchor, passing three swimmers to get into fourth in the heat.

Wednesday

This was one of the Wildcats’ big days, though after this day they had still to achieve a First Team All-America finish.

But the numbers were there, with a relay, two individual swimmers and two divers all earning Second Team All-American status.

On the board in one-meter diving, senior Tobie Stiles and freshman Travis Thornton each qualified after morning competition for the “B” final in the second set of eight divers and would each finish as All-Americans.

Stiles, 11th in the morning, finished fourth in his final with 429.30 points, placing him 12th for his seventh All-American award at NCAA finals. Thornton was 16th in the morning and eighth in the finals for 16th overall with 395.35 points.

In the pool, Ballardin qualified for the “B” final in the 200 individual medley in 12th place in the morning, then placed sixth in his final for 14th place overall in 1:46.09.

Nolles qualified 10th in the 50 free, missing a top-eight finish for the “A” final by just four-hundredths of a second. He was seventh in the “B” final for 15th place in 19.92 seconds, just two-tenths of a seconds off the winning pace in that race.

And the 200 medley relay team of Ballardin, senior Andrew Tease, senior William LaCount and Nolles were fourth in their heat and placed 12th overall in 1:27.65. Balladrin timed 23.36 seconds in his 50 yards of backstroke, Tease a 24.14 in the breaststroke, LaCount 20.83 in the butterfly before Nolles finished it with 19.32 in the free.

In addition, senior Jef Leroux was 23rd and LaCount 25th in the 50 free, while freshman Timothee Garin was 23rd in the 1,000 free.

Thursday

This was another banner day for Northern swimmers as three more Second Team All-America honors popped up for the Wildcats.

It was Ballardin and Nolles again in individual events, with the pair again joining a relay, all for Second Team laurels.

Ballardin competed in the 400 IM and was 11th in the qualifying, then also placing 11th in the finals after he was third in the “B” final in 3:49.66.

Nolles, in the 100 fly, was 15th in qualifying and seventh in his “B” final, for 15th overall in 47.55 seconds after a 47.22 in the preliminaries.

Then in the 400 medley relay, with Ballardin and Nolles joining Tease and Leroux, the same lineup as in the 200 medley relay a day earlier, the quartet finished 12th, just like the day before.

Friday

This was NMU’s true banner day, with five All-American finishes, including its first two of the meet on the First Team.

Those top-eight First Team performances were turned in by Ballardin in the 200 fly and by the 200 free relay that included LaCount, junior Youssef Nahali, Leroux and Nolles.

Ballardin won his morning heat in the 200 fly in 1:44.90, but just snuck into the top eight in seventh place overall in the prelims to advance to the evening “A” final, where he was neck and neck early before finishing sixth in 1:45.39.

The 200 free relay ended up sixth in 1:18.45, just 1.09 seconds off the winning pace and one-tenth of a second out of fourth.

Tease and Stiles added Second Team All-American finishes.

Tease was 14th in qualifying in the 100 breast, qualifying for the “B” final, and after holding the lead at the halfway point in the evening race, he finished seventh to place 15th overall in 54.42 seconds.

Stiles added a second diving All-American award in three-meter diving, getting Second Team after qualifying for the consolation final in 16th with 432.85 points, then placing sixth there for 14th overall with 478.65.

Thornton didn’t make the three-meter cutoff where Stiles was in the morning as he amassed 399.10 points for 18th.

Saturday

On the final day, it was nothing but First Team All-American honors for the Wildcats.

Nolles had a hand in both, finishing in the top eight in both the 100 free and as part of Northern’s 400 free relay.

He was seventh in morning qualifying in the 100 free, then placed eighth in the finals in 43.92 seconds.

Joining Leroux, LaCount and Khmara in the 400 free relay, Nolles and his cohorts swam the 400 free relay in 2:53.67 to place eighth.

In addition, Ballardin just missed the 16-swimmer cut for the 200 breast in 18th place, while Garin finished 24th in the grueling 1,650 free in 15:48.28.

And in the 100 free, Leroux was 20th and LaCount 42nd.

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.