After a slow start, the Northwestern men’s swimming team is back on track.
The Wildcats (4-6) crushed Notre Dame on Saturday 172-126. NU swimmers won first place in 11 of 16 events. Like last week’s meet against Illinois-Chicago, the Cats could have won by more had they not juggled their line-up at the end of the meet to avoid running up the score.
“We were dominating a lot of events early on,” NU coach Bob Groseth said.
The Cats were led by senior Kellan O’Connor who won the 100- and 200-yard butterfly. O’Connor also helped the Cats win the 400 medley relay — an event he does not usually swim. For his feats, O’Connor won this week’s NU Male Athlete of the Week award.
Despite suffering a sprained ankle during practice, junior Tony Swanson won the 100 and 200 backstroke. And Louis Torres, a sophomore, won the 100 and 200 breaststroke.
Although he won twice, Swanson wasn’t pleased with his performance. But once his ankle heals, he thinks he’ll be ready to match his best times.
“I’m not happy with it,” he said. “It’s not a good time, but it’s the best I’ve done so far. I think I’m heading down the right path.”
Notre Dame isn’t a strong swimming team, but the Cats came prepared for a tough competition. After their debacle two weeks ago against Eastern Michigan and Michigan State — two weak teams — the Cats knew they had to bring some emotion to South Bend, Ind.
“We hopefully learned our lesson from the last trip in Michigan,” Groseth said.
When the Cats were struggling, Groseth said he didn’t think dual meets mattered that much compared to the conference and NCAA championship meets. And now that the team is winning, Groseth still doesn’t think the dual meets are more than a tune-up for the end of the season
“We can win or lose, but that’s not really an indication of how we’re going to do at Big Tens,” he said.
Right now the Cats can rely on strong performances by their top swimmers to win meets. But at the championships, NU’s fastest swimmers will need some help.
“You can win a dual meet with two or three guys, but when you reach the championship the whole team needs to perform,” Groseth said.
Against Notre Dame, the Cats finally saw some strong performances from their secondary swimmers.
Groseth said he was pleased with the swimming of Phil Mercier, a sophomore butterfly and freestyle specialist, and junior freestyler Tommy Lockman.
While Groseth had criticized his team in the past for showing a lack of emotion, the coach said his team was much more animated in their rout of Notre Dame — at least until the meet was out of reach for the Fighting Irish.
This time, the swimmers said, it was easier to get excited, especially since some of them chose Northwestern over Notre Dame.
“It’s another (heavily) academic institution, and it’s good to butt heads with more of a peer,” Swanson said.
The team will have to show similar emotion against Michigan at 6 p.m. Friday in Ann Arbor.
“It’s really important to come out with all your guns blazing,” Groseth said.
