Northwestern non-revenue sports update: Fall season wrap-up

It’s time for another non-revenue sports update!

Women’s Golf

We haven’t given much attention to fall women’s golf this season, but the team has been playing tournament across the country this fall. The NCAA runners-up finished second at the Dick McGuire Invitational in September and 5th out of 15 in the Mason Rudolph Championship in Nashville.

October brought another great result at Pebble Beach, where Northwestern finished in third. Hannah Kim, Northwestern’s best golfer, shot 5-under to finish third overall. Finally, at the East Lake Cup in Atlanta, a special tournament for the NCAA Tournametn semifinalists, Northwestern lost its two match plays, including a close 2-1-2 loss in a rematch of the 2017 NCAA Final with Arizona State. Despite this, Northwestern women’s golf should be a dangerous contender heading into the spring.

Men’s Golf

Don’t look now, but Northwestern men’s golf is a team to watch heading into the spring. After just missing out on the NCAA Championships last season, the Wildcats are wasting no time in building for next year’s run. After two disappointing performances to start the season, Northwestern rebounded to tie for first with Penn State at the Windon Memorial Classic in Skokie, Illinois. Northwestern usually does well in this tournament, but men’s golf backed it up with another win at the UNCG/Grandover Intercollegiate in Greensboro.

Senior Dylan Wu finished at 7-under in Greensboro and has cemented his place as one of the best individual golfers Northwestern has ever had. Junior Ryan Lumsden also played well in the fall.

Also, brief Northwestern student Matt Fitzpatrick won the Omega European Masters in September. He’s the man.

Women’s Volleyball

After picking up a win against Michigan on November 10th, Northwestern hoped to build momentum heading into its last few games of the season. Unfortunately, the Wildcats won just one set in its final five matches, which were admittedly tough contests against Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Nebraska. The Wildcats finished 14-18 and the NCAA Tournament went on without them this year.

Cross-country

It’s #ROBERTSSZN at Northwestern! After qualifying for the NCAA Division I Cross-country Championships, Aubrey Roberts traveled to Louisville for her second appearance at the NCAAs. Roberts ran a 20:25, which placed her 63rd out of 255 runners. Her excellent season continued into indoor track with a wild-card entry into the Boston University Season Opener. Running against an elite indoor 5K field, Roberts ran a 16:10 to set an indoor 5K record for the Wildcats.

[This is totally unrelated to those great performances, but indoor track is a miserable activity. The great paradox of indoor track is that if you run well, you can say: “wow, I did so well indoors, outdoor will be great.” If you run badly, you can say: “it’s just indoor, I’ll be better outdoors.” I contend there are very few people who can actually run well in indoor track, especially on flat, non-banked tracks. Aubrey seems to be one of them.]

Women’s Swimming and Diving

Women’s swimming started the season with two losses to Georgia and Georgia Tech, both quality teams. But the Wildcats won four straight meets against Illinois, Rutgers, UChicago, and UIC before Wisconsin finally ended their winning streak. NCAA Diving Champion Olivia Rosendahl is still dominating the platform diving events. She’s been dominant in the three-meter and one-meter events.

Men’s Tennis

We missed this in our last update, but first year Antonioni Fasano won the singles titles at the Big Ten Singles and Doubles Tournament at Michigan State at the end of October. The field wasn’t loaded with the best Big Ten talent due to the professional circuit running at the same time, but it’s still a good sign for Northwestern. The regular season starts on January 18th against North Carolina State.