For the second consecutive year, the Northwestern men’s swim team finished fourth at the Big Ten Swimming and Diving Championships, held in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Before last year, the Wildcats hadn’t finished that high since 1945.

This season, the Cats had only one goal for Big Tens — to get third place. While NU couldn’t reach that mark, it did emerge from the meet as the third-best swimming school in the Big Ten.

The Cats finished directly behind Indiana, but the Hoosiers earned many of their points from their seven-man diving squad.

NU’s lone diver, freshman Mike Oxman, finished fourth in the platform diving competition, but he couldn’t match Indiana.

“Clearly, after Michigan and Minnesota, we were the third-best swimming team,” NU coach Bob Groseth said. “Without Oxman’s performance, we would have been fifth. For a freshman to do that well, that’s awesome.”

Like last year, senior Kellan O’Connor led the Cats with a first-place finish in the 200-yard butterfly.

NU’s only All-Big Ten swimmer also finished second in the 100. In both events, O’Connor’s times were fast enough to qualify for the NCAA Championships, which will be held later this month in Austin, Texas.

After taking third in the 200 individual medley, junior Tony Swanson qualified to join O’Connor in Austin. Swanson also added a seventh-place finish in the 100 backstroke.

Sophomore Louis Torres also provided a couple of top-eight finishes for the Cats. He came in seventh in the 200 breaststroke and sixth in the 100.

And freshman Brian Davis, swimming in his first Big Ten Championships, managed to grab eighth in the 1,650 freestyle.

Davis said he was pleased with his finish, but he hasn’t reached his goal.

“If I can drop 27 seconds off my time, then first place isn’t that far off,” he said. “I’d like to be up there getting a medal next time.”

While he was proud of his own performance, Davis was most impressed by fellow freshman Oxman. NU doesn’t have a platform diving board, so Oxman is forced to travel for practice.

“He trained in Milwaukee twice a week,” Davis said. “It’s incredible the level that he’s competing at.”

Although NU earned 31 more points than last year, Groseth said his team did not swim as well as he had expected.

“Last year and the previous year we swam lights out,” he said. “This year we swam well, but we weren’t completely clicking.”

Still, NU managed to swim faster than most of its Big Ten competition.

“We looked good in comparison to the other teams because they swam badly,” Groseth said. “Our guys adjusted to the pool better than the other teams.”

Now that NU has matched last year’s finish at Big Tens, the team is looking to build on last year’s 19th-place finish at NCAAs.

However, only two Cats have automatically qualified.

While Groseth said he expects junior Mark Hamming to make it to Austin, he also hopes that Torres can improve his time and make the championships.

If the Cats can’t send another swimmer to the NCAAs, they will find it difficult to improve.

Last year the Cats earned points in individual and relay events. But with only three swimmers, there is no way that NU could enter a four-man relay team.