Northwestern Dominates EMU in Season Opener

10/14/2016 6:52:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving

Results (PDF)

EVANSTON, Ill. — The Northwestern men's swimming and diving program begin its season with a dominating 167-128 victory over Eastern Michigan Friday afternoon at the Norris Aquatics Center.

The Wildcats picked up first place finishes in eight of the 14 swimming events, while sweeping the diving events.

Northwestern set the tone right off of the gate by taking the top two spots in the 200-yard free. The team of Alex Snarski, Will Hofsstadter, Arjun Sharma and Almog Olshtein placed first with a time of 1:32.35, while teammates Andy Jovanovic, Thanas Kountrobis, Ryan Tate and Gage Kohner came in right behind at 1:32.41.

Senior Jordan Wilimovsky, fresh off his Olympic Games performance, dominated the 1,000 free, finishing first with a time of 9:05.29. Wlimovsky's time was 34.37 seconds faster than the next finisher, which was teammate Jonathan Blansfield at 9:39.66.

Wilimovsky continued to impress as the senior climbed right back into the pool following his win in the 1,000 free by capturing the top spot in the 200 free (1:41.09). He edged out NU's Charlie Cole by five hundreths of a second (1:41.14).

Wilimovsky would go on to cap his afternoon by winning his third event of the day when he swam the 500 free in 4:27.02.

Eastern Michigan claimed its first victory of the day in the 100 back when Tosh Kawaguchi and Cole Bateman finished first and second with times of 50.20 and 51.10, respectively.

In the 100-yard breaststroke, the Wildcats' Thanas Kountroubis and Will Hofstadter swam a tight race with Kountroubis (57.46) edging out Hofstadter (57.48) by two hundredths of a second.

Justin Hanson earned nine points for the Wildcats in the 200 fly when he turned In a time of 1:50.13. Hanson later went on to win the 200 breaststroke with a finish in 2:06.43.

Almog Oshtein showcased his speed in the short-distance free events claiming wins in both the 50-yard and 100-yard races.

On the diving board, Andrew Cramer and Ben Magliato finished 1-2 in both the 3-meter and 1-meter events.

Northwestern will head to University of Chicago next Saturday, Oct. 22 to compete against the University of Chicago, UIC and Olivet Nazarene at the University of Chicago.