By Journal Sports Staff

WATERFORD – Ryan Knox-Leonard made history Thursday during the second day of the GLIAC Swimming & Diving Championships, setting a school and meet record in the 400-yard individual medley to become the first Wildcat to win a men’s title.

Knox-Leonard clocked in at 3 minutes, 51.65 seconds, a time that automatically qualified him for the NCAA Championships.

Competing in her last GLIAC championship meet, Crystal Bennet also captured a gold medal, winning the 100 butterfly with a time of 56.26 seconds, an NCAA B cut.

Then on Friday, the Wildcats added four more victories to their total.

For the men, Marc Perello took the 100 breastsroke in 54.35 after coming in with only the sixth-best time in the preliminaries. His time, nearly half a second ahead of the rest of the field, was also an NCAA B qualifier.

Perello was joined by Knox-Leonard, Janne Roovers and Grantas Dapkus in winning the 800 freestyle relay in 6:44.17, close to three seconds ahead of runner-up Wayne State. This was also an NCAA B qualifying time.

For the women, Emily Bell qualified first and finished that way in the 200 fly, winning by exactly one second in 2:04.55 for another NCAA B time.

Northern’s final victory Friday came in the women’s one-meter diving, where Molly Kearney totaled 433.55 points, a victory of more than 26 points. Teammate Angela Probstfeld was fourth with 383.50.

Northern resides in the third place in both men’s and women’s meet after Friday with today the fourth and final day of the meet.

The NMU men have 417 points, trailing leader Grand Valley State’s 601 and second-place Wayne State’s 526.5.

The Wildcat women have 400 points as Wayne State leads with 648.5 and Grand Valley has 574.

Also on Friday, the NMU women added a third place in the 800 free relay with Bennet, Rebecca Arakelian, Hannah Crump and Rachel Borchardt finishing in 7:40.55; a fourth by Borchardt in the 500 free in 5:01.31; and a fifth by Regan Kilburn in the 100 back in 55.98. All three were NCAA B cut times.

The Wildcat men also had Roovers finish second in the 500 free in 4:33.80, with Dapkus coming in third in 4:36.19, both NCAA B cuts; Renars Bundzis fourth in 100 back in 49.38, an NCAA B cut; and Knox-Leonard fifth in the 200 fly in an NMU?record 1:51.89.

Back on Thursday, the Northern women’s 400 medley relay team of Bennet, Regan Kilburn, Dana Stroven and Courtney Konopitski finished third in 3:48.56.

Kilburn and Konopitski also were in the 200 free relay, teaming with Samantha Dickie and Borchardt for fourth in 1:36.67, an NCAA B cut.

Borchardt then went on to place fifth in the 200 free in 1:54.41.

In the 400 IM, Savanna Saunders was third in 4:29.43, good for another NCAA B cut.

For the men on Thursday, the 400 medley relay of Bundzis, Perello, Knox-Leonard and Dapkus placed third in at a Wildcat record 3:19.83.

Dapkus also had a third in the 200 free in 1:39.88, a NCAA B cut and school record.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.