MIDDLEBURY – The elder members of the Northridge girls swim team remembered what it felt like last January in Syracuse.

Cold. Bitter. Unhappy.

Wawasee’s Hannah Winters works through the 500 freestyle Tuesday night against Northridge, a season-best for the senior. (Photos by Mike Deak)

There wouldn’t be any repeat performance Tuesday night. In fact, it felt like old times for the Northridge girls swim program, pounding Wawasee 108-78 to reassert itself as the NLC’s premier swim team and sending a message heading into the NLC Championships in just over a week.

Both clubs entered the night 5-0 in the NLC, but Wawasee, the defending conference and regular season champion, unseated Northridge from its decade-long reign last season. Tuesday night, however, was vintage Northridge as its depth and stars provided a lethal combo to humble Wawasee.

Northridge rolled early, taking four of the first five events. The Ridge divers opened with a sweep, led by Rylee Dahlman’s 234.25 the the medley relay opened swimming with a 1:53.01 romp. Katie Hughes began her big night with a 1:55.56 win in the 200 free and Sydney Boyer outreached Wawasee’s Kendra Miller at the wall in the 50 free for a 25.39 winner.

Lauren Miller added a win in the 100 free (55.25), beating Boyer by .07, and Sydnee Emerson provided a big win in the breaststroke at 1:08.41.

Caitlin Clevenger of Wawasee posted a season-best in the IM.

The cake came in the 400 free relay, where Northridge’s stars shined brightest. The teaming of Boyer, Hughes and Emerson set up a fantastic final leg, where Lauren Miller and Wawasee’s ace, Bre Robinson, went stroke for stroke. Miller was given a slight edge on the exchange, and used her final sprint to the wall to stun Robinson, working a 53.91 leg to claim an emphatic 3:39.19 victory. Robinson’s 52.10 leg had Wawasee come in at 3:39.87, a season-best, but a real eye-opener heading into the NLCs next weekend.

“Joe is so deep with all the kids he has, I hope (my team) saw what happened tonight,” coach Robinson said. “It is going to take every one of those girls having to do their part to win. They can’t just rely on Paige or Bre to get the job done. They all need to step up and race.”

Robinson would rally Wawasee to a 1:41.51 win in the 200 free relay, beating Hughes to the wall by about a second. Robinson also won the butterfly (56.67) and the backstroke (58.06), but Miller was closing on Robinson in the final 25 yards of the back.

Bre Robinson of Wawasee was a double winner, taking the butterfly and backstrokes against Northridge.

Wawasee’s Paige Miller was a double winner, taking the individual medley at 2:11.11 and the 500 freestyle at 5:08.30. The 500 was somewhat bittersweet as Northridge head coach Joe Keller decided to pull Hughes from the 500 to help with team point scoring. Hughes and Miller both swam the 500 at state a season ago and both have times in the upper tier of the state in the 500 this season.

“Tonight was about the team,” Keller said. “(Hugues) was great with it. We needed the team points. I knew the other girls in the five free could balance that out, and we didn’t need her to win the race. That’s a race we will like to see, Paige and Katie are outstanding swimmers. That will be left for conference and sectional, if they choose to swim her there.”

The loss for Wawasee was the first of any kind this season, setting the team at 7-1 overall and 5-1 in the NLC with a dual against Goshen set for this Saturday to close the regular season. Northridge moves to 6-0 in the NLC with a outnumbered Plymouth team left on the schedule. Northridge will host the NLCs beginning Jan. 15 with the familiar target on its back as season champion.

“All season long looking at Joe’s team, his team is deep and strong, and their kids are great swimmers,” Robinson said. “I hope this was an eye-opener for the girls to see that they are going to have to give it their best to keep up with Northridge.”