While winning the majority of its events, Illinois swimming and diving came up short in its 160-140 loss at Northwestern on Friday.

The depth of the Wildcats was the main factor in their victory over the Illini. In four of the Illini’s nine wins of the meet, Northwestern finished second, third and fourth. The Wildcats also won the first two spots in an event four times, and swept back-to-back times in the 200 butterfly and the 50 freestyle.

“The real difference maker was their depth,” head coach Sue Novitsky said of Northwestern. “I thought we could’ve been a little bit faster with our turns, and getting more speed into the wall. We had opportunities to pull off the win.”

Illinois won four of the first five events, but the Wildcats put together a string of six consecutive event victories afterwards, which was enough to hold off a late push by the Illini.

“Overall, we did well staying focused through the meet and working through the pain we’ve had this week from practice,” said senior Alison Meng. “It was just the close races that could’ve got us the win, but we came close.”

Shining moments came from the duo from Meng and sophomore Gabbie Stecker, who should be two of the Illini’s leaders this year.

Meng had four first-place finishes on the night. She won two individual events, the 100 backstroke and 100 fly with a time of 54.81 and 55.56 seconds, respectively, and two in the 200 medley relay and 400 freestyle relay.

Stecker provided two individual wins in the 200 free (1:51.41) and the 500 free (4:58.10). She also received a winning time in the 400 free relay (3:26.76) with Meng, Bethke and senior Megan Marchuk.

Starting their collegiate careers, Stratford had two individual victories in the 200 breaststroke (2:18.90) and the 200 individual medley (2:04.27), while Bethke earned points for the Illini finishing second in the 100 free (52.58) and fourth in the 50 free (24.26).

“They were nervous, but stayed focus during the whole meet,” Meng said of Stratford and Bethke. “Overall, all the freshman are adjusting really well.”

The Illini have a weekend off from competition with its next meet set for Nov. 1 against Illinois State and Southern Illinois in Bloomington, Illinois.

“We’ve got a lot of work still to do and we’ll be back at it practicing tomorrow morning,” said Novitsky.

Daniel can be reached at [email protected] and Twitter @chisports2.