Swim and Dive: Northwestern’s men and women sweep Notre Dame

Northwestern swimming and diving got back on its feet on Friday, with its men's and women's teams both picking up resounding wins over Notre Dame.

The 'Cats returned home to the Norris Aquatic Center in hopes of a bounce-back performance, after dropping its first losses of the season against top-5 ranked Indiana and Texas in Bloomington, Indiana. And against the Fighting Irish, Northwestern found the reassuring wins it needed, as the NU men took down Notre Dame 186-114, while the NU women secured a 186-114 victory.

According to Swimcloud, Joshua Staples was the meet's high point on the men's side. However, the women's team did not place the meet's individual champion, with Notre Dame junior Hollie Widdows spoiling the party and besting NU first-year Flawia Kamzol for first place in the women's high point standings.

Results for the meet can be found on the Meet Mobile app or on Swimcloud's meet page for the event .

If interested in learning about how team and high point scoring works for dual-meets, please reference the section "Explanation of Dual-Meet Scoring System" at the bottom of the recap of the Northwestern-Miami (OH) dual-meet .

The No. 16-ranked Northwestern men's team made easy work of the Notre Dame men's team —a fast opponent who received 13 votes in the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America's Division I preseason top 25 national rankings.

The 'Cats secured a 72-point victory over the Fighting Irish, winning seven of the meet's 12 individual swimming events, splitting the meet's two diving events and sweeping the meet's two relays.

An NU team of Stuart Seymour, Connor Schuster, Cade Duncan and Oli Kos took the crown in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:17.97, while a Kos-Staples-Seymour-Duncan tandem touched first in the 400-yard medley relay with a time of 3:05.53.

Staples was the 'Cats' standout performer, taking home three individual event victories in the 100-yard breaststroke (52.67), 200-yard breaststroke (1:56.92) and 200-yard individual medley (1:46.43) in addition to his 51.53 100-yard breaststroke split in the 'Cats' gold medal-winning 400-yard medley relay. It was the Australian's first time swimming in the 200-yard breaststroke and 200-yard individual medley this season, while his 52.67 in the 100-yard breaststroke was good for a season-best time.

NU also claimed spots two and three on the high point podium. Seymour placed second after grabbing event wins in the 100-yard backstroke (45.32) and 100-yard butterfly (45.70) and Kos snagged third off victories in the 200-yard freestyle (1:36.26) and 200-yard backstroke (1:41.66). Meanwhile, the 'Cats' top diver of the meet was senior Adam Cohen, who won the three-meter diving competition and took second in one-meter diving.

Notre Dame's top performer was Shane Eckler, who took fourth with wins in the 50-yard freestyle (19.42) and 100-yard freestyle (42.79).

The Northwestern women won by a similar margin of 60 points against the Notre Dame women. Similar to the men, the NU women won seven of the meet's 12 individual swimming events, though off the flips and grace of senior Chloe Sharp, they swept the meet's one- and three-meter diving competitions.

The 'Cats went 1-1 in the meet's two relays, dropping the 400-yard medley relay by nearly 1.5 seconds to Notre Dame, who won with a time of 3:34.73, while a team of Kamzol, Aya Ferguson, Bri Deierlein and Amy Pan finished first in the 200-yard freestyle relay, posting a 1:30.41 that out-touched the Irish A-team's 1:30.43 by just two hundredths of a second.

Individually, Notre Dame's Widdows topped the women's high point standings after picking up wins in the 50-yard freestyle (22.55) and 100-yard freestyle (49.11).

However, outside of Widdows, NU claimed spots two through five on the leaderboard. For the third time this year in just as many competitions, first-year Kamzol was the 'Cats' highest finisher after she nabbed wins in the 100-yard backstroke (53.65) and 100-yard butterfly (52.30), swimming personal best times in each event. The Winetka senior Maggie Papanicholas took third in the standings after sweeping the breaststroke events, posting a 1:00.91 in the 100 and a 2:11.58 in the 200. And, per usual, junior distance specialist Zoe Noordman triumphed in the 500-yard freestyle (4:47.77) and 1650-yard freestyle (16:37.32), taking fourth, while Sharp took fifth off of her diving victories.

Northwestern's Friday wins over Notre Dame marked its last home meet of 2026 in the Norris Aquatic Center.

After three early-season competitions against Miami (OH), Texas/Indiana and Notre Dame, the 'Cats' fastest swimmers will head to their first peak meet of the season: the USA's first-ever Short Course World Championship Trials at FMC Natatorium from Oct. 28 to Oct. 31 in Westmont, Illinois. NU's Nordmann, Kamzol, Gerchik, Kos and Seymour are all technically seeded top five in an event in the meet's pre-scratch psych sheet , though their standings are inflated because they've all recently logged short course meters times at the Indiana/Texas SCM tri-meet, while most of the field is entered with converted long course meters times.

Following up Westmont, the 'Cats will head toward the sunrise to Durham, North Carolina, to face the Duke Blue Devils on Nov. 6 and Nov. 7.