MEN’S SWIMMING
A leap of faith, a toilet bowl and an octopus have left the Northwestern men’s swimming team in prime condition to face its winter competition after two weeks of intense training in Hawaii over Winter Break.
Holiday training camp had its ups and downs for the Wildcats, but the team came back to Evanston better prepared for the upcoming Big Ten competition.
“Training camp in Hawaii was a success s worked very hard and were very focused while there, even the younger guys,” head coach Bob Groseth said. “Now they seem to be having trouble adjusting to their normal routine and have lost some of that focus, but they’re getting it back.”
The Cats won their only scheduled December event, defeating St. Olaf’s of Minnesota 102-80 on Dec. 28, in what was billed as a relaxed Honolulu meet.
Six hours of daily training in a setting thousands of miles from campus helped the team to bond.
“Two weeks in Hawaii training with the same 20 guys leaves no option but to get along,” sophomore backstroker Tony Swanson said.
The team also benefitted from post-training activities in the Aloha State, among them jumping off a 10-12 meter cliff called the “leap of faith,” where the water below couldn’t be seen and a running jump had to be taken to avoid landing on the rocks. Swimmers also took a trip down the “toilet bowl,” where they dove into a two-foot gap in the rocks — as waves came in — and swam out into a bay.
These somewhat-dangerous activities were team bonding “to the extreme,” Swanson said.
Though some swimmers said they were depressed to be away from their families over the holidays, they found joy in body surfing on Christmas Day and encountering the local wildlife: an octopus and a few sea turtles.
WRESTLING
While most students enjoyed three weeks of sleep, relaxation and recuperation, the Northwestern wrestlers competed in several tournaments and dual meets over Winter Break. These included the Northwestern Duals on Dec. 8, the Midland Championships Dec. 29-30 and the Lone Star Duals Jan. 5-7.
The Cats finished with a 2-1 overall record at the Northwestern Duals, held at Patten Gymnasium. Led by junior All-America candidate John Giacchi and sophomore Ryan Kane, the Cats defeated Eastern Michigan and Princeton 25-15 and 27-11, respectively. Both Kane and Giacchi posted victories over competitors from Princeton and Wisconsin-Parkside, the only team to top the Cats.
NU wrestlers made a small impact on the annual Midlands Championships, which were held in Welsh-Ryan Arena. Giacchi defeated Mark DiSalvo of the Virginia Military Institute and Juan Venturi of Princeton. Kane posted victories against Tony Morgan and Anton Hall of Michigan State. Freshman Robert Maldonado beat Cornell’s Alejandro Alvarez, while sophomore Mike Little defeated Randy Fulsaas of Iowa, the team that won the title.
The Cats then returned to competition at the Lone Star Duals in Grand Prairie, Texas. The team defeated Navy 27-13 but lost to Nebraska-Kearney 20-17, Stanford 24-12 and Brown 21-17. Kane posted a 4-0 record over the weekend, including a 20-17 victory over Stanford’s John Garfinkel in the process. Junior Jason Erwinski marked his first meet off the injured list with a 12-6 victory over Navy’s Jim Letchford. Giacchi and senior Rob Potashnick each earned three victories in Grand Prairie.
The Cats (3-4) travel to Eastern Illinois on Friday night. The team will also compete on Sunday in the Wendy Duals in Ashland, Ohio.
WOMEN’S SWIMMING
It was fun in the sun for the Northwestern women’s swimming team over Winter Break when it traveled to Coral Gables to take on Miami (Fla.) in a training meet. The Wildcats swam in Florida for nine days, traveled to their respective homes for a week and then back to NU for a week of training before classes began.
Two weeks prior to their trek to Florida, the Cats (1-1-1) awed head coach Jimmy Tierney with their finish in the Georgia Invitational, held in Athens, Ga. The Cats placed second only to defending NCAA champion Georgia in the meet, defeating Big Ten rivals Minnesota and Michigan in the process.
Tierney said the team’s performance at the meet gave them confidence for future meets, including the Big Ten championships and the NCAA championships, because the team responded well to the three-day format that was used.
“I was really pleased with the effort,” Tierney said. “I was really happy with how a lot of our new swimmers and divers held up throughout the weekend.”
Tierney also found the Cats’ journey to Miami a positive experience for the team.
“The attitude was good and we were there to work hard,” he said.
Tierney said the team bonded well both in and out of the water — in the pool and on the beach. The team also shopped at nearby South Beach and even took a small cruise around some of the islands surrounding the city.
The Cats responded well to the tasks the coaches gave them, Tierney said.
“They learned to pull together and respond to the challenges,” he said.
He added that this will help lessen the difficulty of challenging situations that could be presented in future meets. The Cats will start by facing opponents Auburn and Tennessee at Auburn Jan. 12.
FENCING
The women’s fencing team faced some stiff competition over break: its coaches.
Head coach Laurie Schiller and his assistants picked up weapons Sunday and faced off against the team in what Schiller called a “Coach’s Challenge.”
Schiller is still sore from his 22 bouts.
“We decided for fun we were going to give them a chance to take shots at us, so we fenced everybody who came to the camp,” assistant coach Ed Kaihatsu said. “And we kicked their butts.”
The Challenge was “a lot of fun,” team captain Lynn Zuckerman said, but it also gave the team some good training for upcoming competitions, including this weekend’s duals at Patten Gymnasium.
“Obviously, fencing somebody that is better than you really brings you up to a higher level,” Zuckerman said. “Since we’re going to be fencing a lot of tough competitors in the coming weeks, it was good to get that competition early.”
Most of the squad returned to campus Friday for an intensive, three-day “boot camp,” Zuckerman said. Team members had both morning and afternoon sessions before returning to a normal training schedule Monday.
During the break, several fencers were busy in non-collegiate competitions. Freshmen Julie F
