Minnesota Women, Northwestern Men Sweep Big Ten Triple Duals

MINNESOTA VS NORTHWESTERN VS PURDUE

• January 30-31, 2026
• Evanston, Ill.
• SCY (25 yards)
• Results

Courtesy: Minnesota Athletics

EVANSTON, IL. – The University of Minnesota swimming and diving programs closed out their two day performance in a Big Ten triple dual against Northwestern University and Purdue University this afternoon, collecting six more event wins in the final 18 events of the competition.

The Gophers finish off the conference triple dual with the women’s programs taking down Purdue 242.50-110.50 and Northwestern 186.00-166.00. The men’s program fell to Purdue 144.50-208.50 and Northwestern 139.00-214.00. Katie McCarthy led the effort from Minnesota today with two individual event wins.

Vivi Del Angel kicked off the diving events this morning with a victory, closing out the 3-meter competition with a score of 339.65 to sweep the women’s diving events this weekend.

McCarthy kicked off the individual swimming events for day two with her first win of the day, tallying a 4:12.16 in the women’s 400 IM.

Morgan Thomas collected a victory next in the women’s 100 fly, speeding to a time of 52.74 to top the heat sheet.

McCarthy continued her performance in the women’s 500 free, tallying a 4:46.99 for the first place finish and her second event win of the day.

Daniel Eichel followed up soon after in the men’s 500 free, posting a time of 4:21.65 to help the Gophers sweep the 500 free races.

A team of Livi Wanner, Morgan Thomas, Mina Kaljevic, and Ava Yablonski led Minnesota to win in the women’s 400 free relay, tallying a total time of 3:16.53 in the final women’s race of the competition.

The Gophers are set to host the First Chance meet next week at the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center in Minneapolis. The unscored meet offers another opportunity for athletes to tally NCAA qualifying marks before postseason competition begins. The action is set to begin on Friday, Feb. 6 at 5:00 PM (CT).

Courtesy: Northwestern Athletics

EVANSTON, Ill. – Northwestern swimming and diving concluded regular season action this weekend in a tri-dual against Minnesota and Purdue. No. 20 Northwestern men’s swimming and diving swept Purdue, 181-172 and Minnesota, 214-139. No. 23 Wildcat women’s swimming and diving defeated Purdue 213-140, then fell to RV Minnesota 186-166, inside Norris Aquatics Center.

“I thought we had some really great swims today,” director of swimming and diving Rachel Stratton-Mills said. “Our men continued to prove that they’re an elite team and can compete at a really high level. On the women’s side, we had several ‘Cats step up and deliver some really strong performances. We’re looking forward to turning the page to the next phase and competing at Big Tens later this month.”

HOW IT HAPPENED
The Wildcats won seven out of eight relays contested over two days of action in Evanston. The ‘Cats claimed victories in both 200 medley relays, both 800 free relays and both 200 free relays, while the Wildcat men placed first in the 400 free relay.

Stuart Seymour led all Wildcat men, claiming event victories in all six events he participated in. Individually, Seymour picked up wins in the 100 back (45.38 seconds) and 100 fly (45.65 seconds). The junior participated in all four victorious Wildcat relays.

Joshua Staples also picked up five event wins for the ‘Cats, and led all Wildcat men with three individual first-place finishes. In the 200 breast, Staples posted a personal-best and punched his ticket to NCAAs in March with an NCAA Qualifying Standard time of 1:54.71. Staples also touched first in the 100 breast (52.39 seconds) and 400 IM (3:44.95).

Cade Duncan also secured an event victory in the 100 free, posting a time of 42.68 seconds.

In addition to three first-place finishes in four relays, the Northwestern women showed their depth, with five different Wildcats winning an individual event.

Ekaterina Nikonova picked up a win in the 100 free, clocking in at 48.57 seconds. Additionally, Nikonova posted a season-best NCAA Qualifying Standard time of 22.25 seconds in the 50 free, placing second.

Lindsay Ervin just narrowly edged out Nikonova in the 50 free to secure the top two spots for the ‘Cats, touching in 22.21 seconds.

Sydney Smith picked up a win in the 200 free with a time of 1:45.27.

First-year Kayla Rodriguez swam a personal-best 2:13.56 in the 200 breast to place first.

Grey Davis claimed a first-place finish in the 200 IM with a season-best time of 1:59.36.

While the Northwestern swimmers competed in Evanston, the Wildcat divers traveled to West Lafayette, Ind., competing at Purdue’s Morgan J. Burke Aquatic Center.

Isabella Chen picked up a third-place finish in platform (249.10), while Caroline Li led all Wildcat women in 3-meter (280.95).

Kyle Ly paced the Wildcat men in diving action, placing fifth in platform (363.70) and sixth in 3-meter (357.50).

TEAM SCORES
Men:
#20 Northwestern 214 – Minnesota 139
#20 Northwestern 181 – Purdue 172

Women:
#23 Northwestern 213 – Purdue 140
RV Minnesota 186 – #23 Northwestern 166

UP NEXT
The Wildcats will compete at the Big Ten Championships. Big Ten Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships are set for Feb. 18-21 in Minneapolis, Minn., while Big Ten Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships are set for Feb. 25-28 in Madison, Wis.

Courtesy: Purdue Athletics

EVANSTON, Ill. – Led by two-time event winners Blake Rowe and Tyler Wills, the Purdue Swimming & Diving teams were victorious in eight events while closing out their dual meet schedules against Minnesota and Northwestern at the annual two-day Big Ten Triple Duals.

The Purdue men scored a decisive victory vs. Minnesota and went toe-to-toe with No. 20 Northwestern in a dual decided by only nine points.

The Purdue men posted just their second victory vs. the Golden Gophers since the 2011-12 campaign. They also bested Minnesota in January 2021 as part of a triple dual hosted by Wisconsin.

Both the Purdue men and women went 5-3 in dual meet action this season.

Rowe and Wills won an event on both Friday and Saturday. Rowe was victorious in the 200 individual medley Friday and his premier event, the 200 backstroke, Saturday. Purdue hosted the diving events this weekend and Wills continued his winning ways this month with a victory on platform Friday and 3-meter Saturday. Wills was victorious twice in both events in January.

The Purdue men had the top four finishers on 3-meter and three of the top four on platform. The men also had three of the top five finishers in the 50 freestyle, 100 free and 100 back. The Purdue women did likewise in 3-meter diving.

Abby Marcukaitis repeated as the event winner of the 200 back at the Big Ten Triple Duals. Her team season-best time of 1:54.70 was the Purdue women’s first NCAA Championships qualifying time of the campaign. Friday, she was the runner-up in the 100 back, again (52.89) making a run again at the program record (52.72) she has been chasing.

Jānis Dzirkalis won the 50 free Friday with a pool record time of 19.53 at NU’s Norris Aquatics Center, teaming up with Alex Hotta (19.57) for a 1-2 finish. Both Boilermakers eclipsed the pool record (19.59) entering the race. Hotta has added his named to Purdue’s all-time leaderboards in five events – 50 and 100 free, 100 and 200 fly, 100 back – this season.

Reagan Mattice (9:47.16) and Jonny Hines (9:09.14) posted lifetime bests in the 1000 free for the second weekend in a row, moving up among Purdue’s all-time top five in the event.

Campbell Scofield won the 200 butterfly for the sixth time this season, posting a team season-best time of 1:57.13. She was just .02 hundredths of a second shy of the NCAA Championships qualifying standard and .11 hundredths of a second off her lifetime best (1:57.02) from the Big Ten Championships last year.

Already the owner of the Purdue men’s freshman record while ranking second all-time in the 200 fly, Biko Hooper-Haviland’s lifetime best of 47.49 in the 100 fly Saturday added his name to the team’s all-time leaderboard in that event as well.

The Boilermakers now turn their full attention to the Big Ten Championships over the final two weeks of February. Minnesota hosts the women’s meet Feb. 18-21 and Wisconsin hosts the men’s meet the following week (Feb. 25-28).