At first glance, finishing a meet with one win and one loss might not seem all that great.

That wasn’t the case for NIU swimming coach Jeanne Fleck, who saw the men’s swim team cruise to a 104-72 win over Loyola University and the women’s team put up a fight in a 135-94 dual meet loss to Illinois State University.

“We had a really great swim. Even though we didn’t beat ISU, I’m really pleased with our performance,” said Fleck about the women’s effort. “It’s a big step forward for us since our last meet. The men’s team knew they could win easily, but they didn’t hold back and that was encouraging.”

The highlight of the meet was the Huskies’ Tony D’Amico. D’Amico qualified for the NCAA National Pre-Qualification Zone C meet in the one-meter diving board, breaking the NIU school and pool record in the process.

The Huskie sophomore amassed a 324.60 score for six dives, surpassing the old NIU and Anderson Hall pool record of 322.20 by Bryan Hanania which was set in a February 7, 1992 dual meet against the University of Illinois-Chicago.

The Huskie men’s squad fired out of the gate in the 400-yard medley relay with NIU foursomes taking first and second place. Eric Beck and Andre Bruce also grabbed first and second place respectively in the 1,000-yard freestyle, as well as Tom Marchertas and Hobe Scholz in the 200-yard freestyle.

The Huskies took first in all but four of the eleven races against Loyola, with Jarod Schroeder (50-yard freestyle, Steve Beck (400-yard Individual Medley and 200-yard backstroke), and Damon Cochran (200-yard breaststroke) taking first in their respective races, and D’Amico easily taking first in both the one-meter and three-meter diving competitions. The win put the Huskies’ dual meet record at 2-2.

In the women’s meet, Jennifer Mackey came eight seconds away from breaking the Huskie women’s 1,000-yard freestyle record, posting a time of 10:35.71. Mackey was also a winner in the 500-yard freestyle and 200-yard breaststroke.

NIU also received outstanding first-place performances by Mandy Radke in the 200-yard freestyle, Margaret Turnerin one-meter diving, Abby Hathaway in the 200-yard backstroke, and Amy Inselberger for three-meter diving.

The Huskies will now go west to train and compete, with their next competition coming in Honolulu, Hawaii over semester break.