The Northwestern women’s swimming and diving team finished ninth at the Big Ten Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships this past weekend at the Gene K. Freeman Aquatic Center in Minneapolis.
The Cats scored 446 points, 37 more than last season but still tied for the 2025 divisional round.
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Entering the game, No. 4 Michigan, No. 6 Indiana and No. 11 Ohio State were widely considered the conference’s top contenders, and the results reflected that expectation. Michigan State ended up winning its first women’s swimming and diving conference championship since 2018, with Indiana finishing second and the defending champion Buckeyes finishing third. The Wolverines displayed serious star power throughout the four-day meet, led by high-scoring champion Bella Sims, who won the 400-yard individual medley, the 200-yard individual medley and won three relays.
Results for the Big Ten Championships can be found on the Meet mobile app or on the event meeting page on Swimcloud.
Meeting review
Northwestern University ranked ninth for the second consecutive year with a total score of 446 points. The Cats are about to improve on their 2025 results, battling Purdue all weekend for eighth place. In the end, however, Purdue defeated Northwestern 497 to 446, due in large part to a strong performance in the meet’s diving event, which was too much for the ‘Cats to overcome in swimming. On the overall podium, Michigan topped the list, Indiana ranked second and Ohio State ranked third.
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Michigan controlled most of the championships, winning half of the individual events and four of the five relays. The Wolverines were powered by three star swimmers, Bella Sims, Hannah Bellard and Letitia Sim, who all finished in the top five in the meet’s highest points standings. Sims won the 400-yard individual medley and 200-yard individual medley, Berard won the 200-yard butterfly and 500-yard freestyle, and Sims swept the breaststroke events.
The tournament saw a slew of Big Ten records broken. Michigan’s Sims-Sim-Kendall-Greenhawt and Sims-Sim-Kendall-Balduccini relay teams set meet records in the 200-yard and 400-yard medley relays, respectively. Individual meet records were set by Sims in the 400-yard individual medley, Indiana’s Liberty Clark in the 100-yard freestyle and Wisconsin’s Maggie Vanezek in the 200-yard backstroke.
For Northwestern, the highlight of the meet was the 800-yard freestyle relay, where the team of Ekaterina Nikonova, Sydney Smith, Zoe Nordmann and Hana Shimizu-Bowers finished sixth in a school-record time of 7 minutes, 01.42 seconds, the Wildcats’ highest relay time at the meet. Northwestern also placed sixth in the 200 freestyle relay behind a team of Lindsay Ervin, Nikonova, Audrey Yu and Pan.
Individually, Zoe Nordmann was sixth in the 1,650-yard freestyle, while Lindsay Ervin was eighth in the 100-yard freestyle with a personal best time of 48.28. The Wildcats also have seven B-final appearances (9th to 16th in qualifying) from Sydney Smith (200-yard freestyle), Teja Nikolova (100-yard breaststroke), Nordman (500-yard freestyle), Ervin (50-yard freestyle), Kate Nikonova (100-yard freestyle), Shimizu-Bowles (200-yard butterfly) and Claire Mayhawk Mehok) (200-yard backstroke).
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On the diving side, Northwestern’s scoring impact was limited compared to some of the deeper diving programs in the conference, which hurt them greatly in the overall team competition. In a matchup with Purdue for eighth place, the Cats earned points in just two Class C finals appearances in all three diving events, while the Boilermakers had divers finish in the top three in each event, with Avery Wrobel winning the 3-meter event. Isabella Chen was the best performer and the only scorer in the 3-meter and 10-meter events of the “Cat” team, ranking 19th and 24th respectively. Northwestern did not score in the 1-meter springboard competition.
In terms of individual high points, Big Ten swimming championship champion Bella Sims leads the way with five gold medals and two silver medals for Michigan. Indiana’s Clark finished second after a title-breaking run that included personal bests in the 50-, 100- and 200-yard freestyle events, while Sims’ fellow Wolverine Berard was third. For Northwestern, Nordman is the highest-ranked Wildcat on the high-scoring list, ranked No. 45 overall, and Owen is Northwestern’s only swimmer ranked in the top 100, ranked No. 68.
One big observation
Like last year, Northwestern had no star power in the Big Ten Tournament.
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The 2025 Cats individual champion was senior swimmer Nikki Venema, who finished 73rd in the meet’s top standings. Nordman, then a freshman, was the Wildcats’ only top-100 finisher, placing 92nd in Class B times in the 500-yard freestyle and 1,650-yard freestyle. This year, the Cats once again struggled for a spot in the A finals with just two swimmers in the top 100, despite Nordmann and Lindsay Ervin both finishing ahead of Venom’s 2025 team best.
Granted, focusing on the Cats’ lack of top 100 swimmers is a bit of a “glass half empty” prospect. Northwestern has solid depth in the 2025 and 2026 classes, with seven swimmers finishing 100-150 in the Big Ten last year and eight doing the same this year. While the ‘Cats are in the bottom half of the Big Ten among swimmers ranked 1-99, if you expand the range to 150, the ‘Cats are in the top half of the conference. This depth is important.
The bottom line, though, is that as much as Northwestern has grown in recent years under head coach Rachel Stratton-Mills, the ‘Cats’ repeat ninth-place finish is a harsh reality check that the ‘Cats won’t be able to make significant strides in the Big Ten standings without more star power. Without league-wide talent, depth can only get the ‘Cats so far.
Fortunately for Northwestern, a slew of recruits are on the way. This fall, Flawia Kamzol, the No. 20 recruit in the Class of 2026, and Xintong Wang, the No. 97 recruit in the Class of 2026, will arrive in Evanston as two of the highest-rated recruits in the Stratton-Mills era. In addition, the future classes will be even more exciting, with Lucy Velte and Annabeth Town, No. 14 and No. 41 freshmen in the Class of 2027, respectively, set to attend school in a year and a half. Future Northwest seasons will depend on Stratton Mills and Co. These big talents can be developed into reliable stars while maintaining the depth of the past two years.
