When the weather gets cold, illness strikes many, especially when you go outside after a swimming meet.

The NIU swimming team has fell victim to the cold and flu season. However, they have exactly one week to recover before its season-opening meets at Anderson Hall Pool against Western Illinois University on Nov. 13 for a 7 p.m. start and Nov. 14 against the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay for a 1 p.m. start.

Head swimming coach Jeanne Fleck welcomed the extra week’s rest in hopes that her squad can recover. Meanwhile, she feels that her teams are in good shape after last week’s Cardinal-Black Intra-Squad Meet.

“We had some great times right out of the blocks. A few of the times are right in the neighborhood of what were our season bests from the end of last year,” said Fleck.

Jarod Schroeder took first place in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of :22.19 and the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:02.42.

Kristin Scholz also proclaimed victory in two categories. Her time of 2:14.64 in the 200-yard backstroke and 2:03.85 in the 200-yard freestyle were good for firsts.

Other first-place finishers included Steve Beck (500-yard freestyle), Ben Bell (200-yard backstroke), Alex Attiah (100-yard freestyle), Judi Graham (500-yard freestyle), Diana Serrano (50-yard freestyle) and Janene Bytnar (200-yard butterfly).

NIU diving head coach Jeff Symons has his squad working hard as well.

“Our practice this week is going pretty well,” said Symons. “We do have a lot of talent, and we need to concentrate and keep focused on our goals.”

Freshman Tony D’Amico swept the one- and three-meter diving competition with scores of 251.00 and 257.63, respectively. On the women’s side, sophomore Amy Inselburger also swept both categories with scores of 202.90 and 235.42, respectively.