Head coach Bob Groseth is realistic about the Northwestern men’s swimming team’s prospects this season. After the Wildcats finished fourth out of 10 teams at Big Tens in March, he isn’t expecting them to compete for the conference title this season.

Swimming just doesn’t work that way.

“The fifth-place team can’t beat the first-place team,” Groseth said. “That just doesn’t happen.”

That said, NU is aiming to improve upon last season’s finish.

“We aren’t going to settle for anything less than third,” said senior Kellan O’Connor, a butterfly specialist. “But we’re going to give the top teams a big scare.”

Groseth said he hopes his team will finish in the top 15 at the NCAA championships after finishing 19th last season.

It’s not that NU has low expectations this year. But in swimming, moving up more than one place in the standings is just not as easy to do as it is in other sports, O’Connor said.

“It’s one of the most different sports,” he said. “It’s not like football and basketball.”

Because swimming is based on times — and those times are unlikely to drop drastically on any given day — teams know how they match up before a meet even begins.

NU knows it can compete against strong teams like Purdue and Penn State. But the Cats still are unlikely to beat perennial powerhouses Michigan and Minnesota.

“They have bigger recruiting classes, bigger teams,” O’Connor said. “To get third place this year would be a big honor.”

So far, NU’s swimmers believe they are on their way to their goal. The Cats have lost their last two meets, but they say it’s their times — not their record — that matters.

Those times, for the most part, have been faster than they were last season.

“Historically we’re a slow-starting team,” Groseth said. “(But) when you compare our times this year (with) those of last year, we’re ahead.”

One reason the Cats have been faster this year is the improved swimming of sophomore breaststroker Louis Torres, Groseth said. Two weeks ago against Indiana, Torres placed second in the 100-yard breastroke, losing by one-hundredth of a second. Last week, he won the event against Wisconsin.

“The last two weekends, he’s stepped it up to the next level,” Groseth said.

But Torres downplayed his coach’s praise.

“I’m happy, but I don’t want it to get to my head,” he said. “I’ve always expected myself to be better.”

Groseth also said he has been pleased with the upperclassmen on the team for setting a good example for the younger swimmers.

Those juniors and seniors will be expected to lead the Cats Friday, Saturday and Sunday when they compete in the NU Invitational at the Sports Pavilion and Aquatics Center.

Groseth said he believes the team will perform well in its last meet of the quarter.

“They’ve swum well up to now, and they’ll want to focus on this meet because it is our last until January,” he said.

But Southern Methodist, last year’s Western Athletic Conference champion, will provide tough competition for the Cats.

“I expect it to be a real tight battle between SMU and us,” Groseth said.

O’Connor, though, is more optimistic.

“We definitely should win this meet,” he said.