Confident they would trounce Iowa this weekend, some members of the Northwestern men’s swimming team focused on another goal — breaking pool records.
On their way to a 196-153 victory over the Hawkeyes (3-5,0-5 Big Ten) in its last dual meet of the season, NU (5-7, 1-5) swimmers did just that, shattering four NU home records.
During the two-day meet, the Cats won 12 of the 18 events at Norris Aquatics Center — including every event but one on Saturday.
NU coach Bob Groseth said he couldn’t remember another meet in which NU broke so many marks.
“I don’t think we’ve ever done that ,” he said. “We used to have shitty teams.”
In his final home meet, senior Kellan O’Connor swam the 200-yard butterfly in 1:46.30, breaking his own pool record by 0.26 seconds. He also broke the record in the 100-yard butterfly, clocking in at 48.40 — 0.16 seconds faster than the previous best.
“It’s the kind of performance we’ve come to expect from Kellan,” said his roommate and co-captain Dave Hersh. “He wanted the pool record and he got it.”
While Hersh and his teammates have come to expect such strong performances from O’Connor, the team was pleasantly surprised with NU’s prowess in the individual medley.
Junior Tony Swanson skimmed .42 seconds off the pool record in the 200 IM, finishing at 1:49.04.
Junior Chris Biedrzycki, a transfer from Georgia Tech, smashed the record in the 400 IM, taking 1.46 seconds off the old mark to finish at 3:56.25.
Hersh said he was impressed with the focus of Biedrzycki, who had made breaking the record one of his goals at the beginning of the season.
“We always knew Chris would be a good addition,” he said. “By breaking the record, he showed he would be a leader on this team.”
While Biedrzycki was swimming for the record, he said he felt the crowd getting behind him.
“I started to notice a lot of people getting up and cheering,” he said. “I knew that I was close and that kind of kept me going.”
Biedrzycki said he will enjoy his accomplishment for a little while but hopes to follow O’Connor’s by improving on his own mark.
“We have a lot of fast freshmen coming in,” Biedrzycki said. “I need to defend it.”
While Swanson smashed the record in the 200 IM, Groseth said the achievement wasn’t quite as exciting for the team. This was Swanson’s first record at NU’s pool, but he has already achieved similar distinctions at other schools.
NU will have to wait until next year before it can break any more Norris Aquatics Center records. For seniors O’Connor, Hersh and Mike Shue, this was their last home meet.
Although NU’s record breakers received most the attention over the weekend, other swimmers took home victories.
Sophomore Louis Torres won the 200 breastroke and junior Dan Williams took first place in the 200 freestyle.
Freshman Brian Davis followed his strong performance against Michigan by taking first place in the 1,650 and 500 freestyle.
Although it was far from the pool record, Davis’ time in the 1,650 equaled a personal best.
And Davis said he was impressed with his team’s big win over the Hawkeyes.
“We killed them,” he said. “We swam fast and had a lot of fun.”
IOWA 153
NU 196
