Males’s Swim and Dive: Led by Seymour and Staples, ‘Cats end Twenty sixth at NCAAs for finest end since 2008

No. 21 Northwestern males’s swim and dive wrapped up a historic season at NCAA Division I Championships on Friday night time, putting Twenty sixth after breaking 4 new faculty information on the McAuley Aquatic Center for its finest end on the meet since 2008.

Down in Atlanta, the Wildcats have been led by star swimmers Stuart Seymour and Joshua Staples, who mixed for 3 particular person faculty information and three top-16 finishes in particular person occasions. Staples logged the Northwestern’s finest particular person end of the weekend, putting eighth within the 400-yard particular person medley to change into the primary Wildcat since Jordan Wilimovsky in 2017 to make the A-final in an occasion at NCAAs. Meanwhile, Seymour set faculty information within the 100-yard backstroke and 100-yard freestyle occasions, whereas contributing to the ‘Cats’ faculty report setting 400-yard freestyle relay.

In the broader scheme of the meet, the Texas Longhorns, led by legendary head coach Bob Bowman, received their second-consecutive nationwide championship, with a scoring complete of 445.5. The Longhorns have been adopted by the Florida Gators, who took second, and the Big Ten champion Indiana Hoosiers, who took third. Florida’s Josh Liendo received excessive level of the meet, powered by his 42.49 within the 100-yard butterfly which shattered Caeleb Dressel’s legendary NCAA-record within the occasion. Texas’ Hubert Kos, brother of Northwestern’s very personal Oliver Kos, positioned second within the excessive level standings, setting NCAA-records in each the 100- and 200-yard backstroke occasions. Arizona State’s Ilya Kharun positioned third.

Results for the NCAA Division I Championships might be discovered on the Meet Mobile app or on SwimCloud’s meet page for the event.

After not scoring at NCAAs in 2025, Northwestern positioned Twenty sixth on the championships this yr with a complete of 39 factors. The ‘Cats’ Twenty sixth-place end was its highest since 2008, when Northwestern completed twelfth at NCAAs with a Matt Grevers-led unit.

Northwestern was led by its star sophomore expertise Joshua Staples, who grew to become the primary ’Cat to succeed in the A-final within the 400-yard particular person medley since 2004. Staples’ faculty report 3:36.58 in prelims seeded him third-place within the occasion getting into finals. Had he matched his time in finals, he would’ve positioned sixth. However, the Aussie ended up including 6.33 seconds to his prelims swim, ending eighth within the occasion.

Seemingly, Staples suffered from an damage of some kind following his prelims swim within the 400-yard particular person medley. The Brisbane-native was not the identical swimmer in his consequent particular person swims, including vital time not solely in his finals swim of the 400-yard particular person medley, but additionally his 2oo-yard particular person medley prelims swim on day 4 of the meet, the place he clocked a 1:47.96 — over six seconds off of his private finest. Though, his 50.46-split within the 100-yard breastroke as part of the ‘Cats’ 400-yard medley relay was a aggressive time, so maybe Staples was simply battling fatigue in his different particular person swims.

Seymour was the Wildcats’ different standout particular person performer. The junior gained All-American honorable point out standing with top-16 finishes in each the 100-yard butterfly (fifteenth) and 100-yard backstroke (eleventh). Furthermore, Seymour set two new faculty information in Atlanta with a 44.55 within the 100-yard backstroke and 41.76 within the 100-yard freestyle.

Though Staples and Seymour have been the ‘Cats’ solely particular person level scorers, there have been different notable particular person performances. Adam Cohen had a stable efficiency in platform diving, putting seventeenth with a rating of 348.30. Additionally, Oliver Kos positioned 18th within the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1:39.50 and David Gerchik positioned twenty eighth within the 100-yard backstroke with a private finest 45.37.

Northwestern additionally scored factors in each the 400-yard medley relay and 400-yard freestyle relay. The 400-yard freestyle relay was a spotlight occasion of the meet for the ‘Cats, with Seymour, Cade Duncan, Connor Schuster and Kos teaming up to post a school record time of 2:47.72, placing 12th in the event. Meanwhile, Seymour, Staples, Schuster and Duncan teamed up in the 400-yard medley relay to place 12th with a time of 3:02.18.

It’s onerous to actually contextualize how unimaginable of a breakthrough this season was for Northwestern males’s swim and dive.

After grand successes within the Matt Grevers years on the finish of the 2000s, the ‘Cats slowly declined. For almost a decade, they sent small contingents to NCAAs, sometimes stumbling upon a breakout swimmer like Jordan Wilimovsky who would score them some points, but most time failing to score at the NCAAs at all. Northwestern hit rock bottom at the end of the 2010s, sending zero swimmers to NCAAs for two-consecutive years in 2018 and 2019. The program was broken, with no resemblance to the team that placed eighth at NCAAs in 2007.

Just last year, Northwestern was still nowhere close to national relevance. Despite sending a contingent of four individual swimmers to NCAAs, the ‘Cats went scoreless at the competition, with Seymour just missing out on a B-final swim with a 17th-place 45.22 in the 100-yard backstroke. Amazingly, Staples didn’t even swim the 400-yard particular person medley occasion till this season. Staples was purely a distance freestyler and swam the 1650-yard freestyle and 500-yard freestyle at NCAAs.

With core swimmers like Seymour, Staples and Gerchik nonetheless younger, it appeared clear that Northwestern had the possibility to make strides within the 2025-26 season. However, when you had instructed head coach Rachel Stratton-Mills that Joshua Staples was going to A-final within the 400-yard particular person medley — not a distance freestyle occasion — at NCAAs AND that her squad was going to put Twenty sixth, she would have referred to as you loopy.

For the primary time in virtually 20 years, it lastly feels truthful to say that Northwestern is related on the nationwide scene. The ‘Cats 26th place finish is the program’s finest since Grevers’ closing season in 2008. In a sport pushed by star energy, Northwestern lastly has discovered national-level expertise. The ‘Cats had not one, but two individual point scorers at NCAAs in Staples and Seymour. As mentioned earlier, Staples, who is only a sophomore, became the ‘Cats’ first A-finalist in ANY occasion since Jordan Wilimovsky in 2017.

The tides are lastly altering in Evanston. Stratton-Mills has achieved an unimaginable job with this staff and this system ought to solely proceed to develop. With influence NCAA-qualifiers Staples, Seymour, Kos and Duncan all returning subsequent yr to swim alongside a high-level incoming recruiting class, make or not it’s recognized: the ‘Cats are coming.