Experience proved to be important this weekend as the NIU swim teams took all the positives from a tough loss last week to Wisconsin and applied them to three victories at Western Illinois.

The NIU men’s side dominated the pool, beating Northern Iowa 94-19 and handling the hosts 82-31.

“I was very happy with the men today,” head coach Anne Marie Stricklin said.

For the second week in a row, the men were led by Hungarian Andres Schnoek. The senior landed three first place finishes on the day. Schnoek took first place in the 200-yard backstroke and 50-yard freestyle with times of 1:55.11 and 0:21.29. He also was part of the 400-yard freestyle team that paced the field with a first place finish.

The men were also led by a strong performance on the diving board from Tony Marinaccio. The St.Charles native won the one-meter diving event with a score of 287.45 and took second in the three-meter event, tallying a 215.90.

“Tony did very well and had a great performance,” Stricklin noted.

The women, led by Erica Nielson, slid past Western 58-55 before falling to Northern Iowa 75-38.

Nielson won both the 500- and 200-yard freestyle and grabbed a second place finish in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:12.02.

Stricklin was very impressed with many of the individual performances. This weekend’s event allowed people to try out different events in preparation for conference play.

“For the girls, Erica Nielson did a great job and I was happy with the effort she gave,” Stricklin said. “Tonight gave us some good experience and confidence for both the men and women. We are looking forward to tomorrow and hoping the same success against UIC.”