EVANSTON, Ill. – With an opportunity to quickly get back on track, the Wisconsin swimming and diving program wasted no time moving on from its road losses at Indiana on Friday and followed up with a dual meet sweep of Northwestern on Saturday in Evanston, Illinois.
Danielle Valley had a standout day and led the Badger women to their 183-117 win. Valley won three events and claimed individual titles in the 200-yard freestyle, the 500-yard freestyle and the 400-yard individual medley.
Freshman Jess Unicomb continued the strong start to her debut season, as she won the 100-yard backstroke and also contributed to winning relays for Wisconsin in the 200-yard medley relay and 200-yard freestyle relay.
In diving, Hazel Hertting won the women's 1-meter event with a score of 292.50. Teammate Ashley Peterson finished third with a score of 260.70.
The Wisconsin men's team also earned a victory over Northwestern in a 181.5-117.5 final.
Cannon Clifton had a strong showing for the Badgers, winning individual titles in the 200-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly, while also contributing to relay wins in the 200-yard medley and 200-freestyle.
Jake Mandli swept the breaststroke events by winning titles in both the 100-yard and 200-yard races. Mandli was also part of UW's winning 200-yard medley relay team.
Nathan Mueller also had a really nice day. Not only did he win the 500-yard freestyle in 4:32.50, but he also earned the Badgers points with his third-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle (1:41.46).
"I thought we were a little bit better overall this morning, which is encouraging because it was a little bit earlier than a traditional meet," Wisconsin head coach
Whitney Hite said of the 10:30 a.m. (CT) dual meet. "I felt like we had an opportunity to put some people in some different events and allow them to be in competitive situations in some off events. I think that showed the strength of our team.
"I thought it was fun to see people in different events stepping up. Overall, I thought we were pretty darn good."
Wisconsin now breaks from dual meet competition to prepare for the Texas Invitational, which takes place Dec. 3-5 in Austin, Texas.
"We're going to get back to work. We've got one more solid week of uninterrupted work and we're going to try to get as much done this week as we can," Hite said. "Then after the Thanksgiving break, we've got the Texas meet. That's a big meet for us. It'll give us an idea of where we are at the halfway turn."
