The Northwestern men’s swimming team will be diving into its meet against Big Ten rival Michigan State at the Norris Aquatics Center this Friday, a day earlier than originally scheduled.
The meet was moved to Friday because of a scheduling conflict, with Michigan State opting for a meet against Purdue on Saturday. But neither head coach Bob Groseth nor his swimmers think the alteration will affect the outcome of the meet.
“The change in date won’t be a problem for us,” sophomore Tony Swanson said. “It was just more of a surprise when we got back from training.”
Michigan State is only the second conference foe the Wildcats will compete against in a dual-meet setting this season. On Nov. 8 in Madison, NU dropped a dual meet to Wisconsin, 187-101.
But the Cats are confident they can claim victory over the Spartans.
“If we swim how we’re capable of swimming, we can beat them,” said Swanson, who will compete in the backstroke and individual medley.
With Michigan State head coach Jim Lutz in just his second year with the team, the Spartans are struggling this season with a 2-2 record against nonconference teams. They have yet to go up against a Big Ten rival in a dual meet.
Michigan State heads to Evanston following a confidence booster at the Miami Invitational in Oxford, Ohio, on Dec. 2, where they finished second out of 19 teams.
In the distance freestyle events, Michigan State junior Joe Brennan should give the Cats’ top distance freestyler, junior Mike Shue, some tough competition.
In 2001, Brennan took first place in the 1000 freestyle in the dual meet versus the Cats in Evanston.
Another weapon for the Spartans is junior breaststroke specialist Joe Baicy, a swimmer capable of competing with NU counterpart Aaron McCracken.
Michigan State’s performance will rely heavily on its veteran leadership. The Spartans’ roster includes 11 freshmen, almost twice as many first-years as NU counts among its swimmers.
This influx of freshmen helped keep the Spartans out of the Top 25 at the start of the season – making them one of only four unranked Big Ten teams.
But even though Michigan State is a young team, Groseth warns that the Spartans possess swimmers with enough talent to challenge the Cats.
One factor that has Groseth concerned is the lack of rigorous meets his team has faced so far this season.
“Our competition up to these Big Ten meets hasn’t been too good,” Groseth said.
“The biggest concern is that we perform to the level we can.”
Groseth believes that a victory over Michigan State would give the Cats a boost that could carry them to wins over Illinois-Chicago next week and against rival Iowa on Feb. 9.
Along with NU, the Hawkeyes are also trying to claw their way to the top of the Big Ten this season.
As NU sophomore butterfly/individual medley specialist Mark Hamming said earlier this season, “Our team has a lot of potential within the Big Ten this year.”
Yet the Cats’ confidence should not be confused with arrogance – Michigan State boasts a team “not to be ignored,” Swanson said.
