Wildcats Resume Campaign at SMU Saturday

1/12/2018 10:07:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving

EVANSTON, Ill. – The Northwestern men's swimming and diving team heads to Dallas, Texas to take on SMU on Saturday Jan. 13 at noon CT.

The Wildcats return to the pool for the first time since winning the TYR Invitational in November.

LAST TIME OUT: TYR Invitational
Junior Will Hofstadter earned the 'Cats first NCAA 'B' cut time of the year at TYR, finishing second in the 100 breast with a time of 54.51. Hofstadter also took second in the 50 breast. He then joined Nick Petersen, Ryan Tate and Almog Olshtein for the 200 medley relay. The team finished second and posted a season-best time of 1:28.78.

Petersen came in second in the 50 back with a time of 22.92, Northwestern's top time of the year. Finishing just behind him was junior Jack Thorne, who took third. Petersen also finished fifth in the 100 fly, while Tate came in second.

First year Jeffrey Durmer and junior Tyler Lis swam career bests in the 400 yard IM, touching the wall in 3:56.22 and 4:00.79, respectively. Durmer finished in second, while Lis came in fourth. Lis also took fourth in the 100 IM and third in the 200 back.

First year DJ Hwang continued his impressive season by earning an NCAA B' cut time of 15:26.09 and a second-place finish in the 1,650 free. Fellow first year Liam Gately's season-best time of 1:38.75 put him in third place in the 200 free, while first year Robert Cecil took sixth in the event.

In the 100 back, Thorne and Petersen finished third and fifth, respectively, both finishing with season-best times. Thorne recorded a time of 49.06, while Petersen finished in 49.51.

Junior Justin Hanson tallied a runner-up finish in the 200 fly, and first year Lyon Zhang earned a fourth-place finish in the 200 breast.

On the boards, Junior Ben Magliato won the 1-meter diving event. He also scored a season-best 288.55 in the three meter diving event, earning second place.

OPPONENT: SMU
SMU [3-2] is coming off a 173-85 loss to No. 15 Missouri last Saturday. The 'Cats also fell to Missouri, 279-68, on Nov. 4.

The Mustang's top performer in the contest was senior Jonathon Gomez. Gomez finished first in the 200 fly and 500 IM, and took second in the 200 IM.

This is the first meeting between the two programs since 2007, when the eighth-ranked 'Cats defeated the Mustangs 359-305 in the Dallas Morning News Swimming and Diving Classic.