Little League baseball has its mercy rule. Swimming has its gentlemen’s agreement.

And Northwestern’s men’s team (3-6) adhered to that understanding Friday when it all but crushed Illinois-Chicago 194-96. NU’s margin of victory would have been larger if the squad had not followed pool protocol and avoided running up the score.

The Cats won 11 of 14 swimming events and both diving competitions. In the last event of the day, NU’s 400-yard freestyle relay team also finished first, but it exhibitioned the match and therefore didn’t count the win toward its final tally.

“You don’t run up the score in swimming,” senior captain Dave Hersh said.

NU’s swimmers believed they were going to dominate the meet, but they did not become overconfident.

“The best teams are not the teams that swim up to their competition,” Hersh said. “They’re the teams that don’t swim down to their competition.”

Wildcats swimmers swept first, second and third place in eight of Friday’s events. As a result, the meet consisted mostly of NU swimmers trying to edge out their own teammates.

“We need more of that,” NU coach Bob Groseth said. “Guys racing each other and pushing really hard.”

In thrashing Illinois-Chicago, NU showed more emotion than last weekend when it lost two dual-meets to mediocre squads. Freshman Brian Davis, a distance freestyler, was especially boisterous as he cheered his teammates and waved his hands from the deck.

Groseth, who was disappointed in last weekend’s lack of emotion, was only moderately pleased with his squad’s internal fire –even as they put out the Flames.

“We saw a glimmer today, ” he said, “but we’re still missing the overall consuming intensity.”

Some Cats said they swim a little faster when they’re cheered on by their teammates.

“For some people, it’s getting in their face and screaming at them and getting them all fired up,” junior Tommy Lockman said.

Groseth wants to see all his swimmers excited next week against Notre Dame — a much stronger squad than Illinois-Chicago.

“We can’t do what we want to do as a team unless we’re more on fire,” he said.