Northwestern Swim and Dive has canceled the Premier Series Midwest Open set to be hosted January 8 and 9 due to “health and safety concerns related to COVID-19 on the Northwestern Swimming and Diving Teams,” according to a tweet from the NU Athletics account posted on Friday.
The meet is not set to be rescheduled. Though NU did not specify whether members of the team had tested positive, the school started its Wildcat Wellness period this week, where students returned to school and the entire community tested for COVID-19. Over the past week, 909 positive tests were returned out of 16,409 tests received.
Northwestern last competed at a meet against Georgia Tech and Miami on December 18. Cook County, which includes both Evanston and Chicago, has a relatively low COVID-19 case count per capita, with 221 positive cases per 100,000 people. That number doesn’t even put Cook County in the top 20 counties with the most positive cases per 100,000 people.
Northwestern currently requires its students to be up-to-date with their vaccination status, including receiving a booster when students become eligible.
Last year, the Northwestern men finished sixth at the men’s Big Ten Championships, while the women finished fourth.
