Both the NIU men’s and women’s swim teams conquered their respective obstacles last weekend.

The women’s team, led by NIU record holder Jenny Wendell, overcame a 26-point deficit against Illinois-Chicago as Wendell took firsts in three events (50-yard freestyle, 200-yard breaststroke, and 400-yard medley relay) to help NIU triumph, 116-106.

The other Huskie star was junior Stacey Hartzer, who finished first in the 500- and 1000-yard freestyle, and second in the 200-yard butterfly.

“Stacy did a great job,” NIU women’s coach Mike Burt said. “That is a tough triple. A lot of kids can’t do it, but she did.”

The Huskies started off the bout down 18 points because they did not have any entrants in the diving competition.

“Any time you are short in an event, it’s hard to come back,” Burt said. “We had to make some adjustments during the meet.”

The men’s team came away with two wins last weekend raising its record to 9-1. The Huskies only loss was to Notre Dame.

NIU handled the NAIA member Illinois Institute of Technology 155-81 at Anderson pool and drowned the Northwestern Wildcats at Evanston 63-48. The weekend competition has worn out the Huskies.

“This was great,” said men’s coach Dave Clark about the wins. “The truth is we’re dragging, we were unrested, completely dead tired, but we keep coming up with great times. We weren’t very far off some school records. We’re much faster than we were at this time last year.”

NIU’s Steve Sanders provided the spark or the splash for the Huskies in the Northwestern meet. He swam his best time of the season in the 200-yard individual medley at 1:57.16, a near NIU record. Sanders also finished second in the 500-yard freestyle.