There won’t be a bosomy performance from Janet Jackson. The competition isn’t going to be broadcast in 21 different languages to 229 countries.
But for the Northwestern men’s swimming team, its version of the Super Bowl begins today with the Big Ten championships at the Boilermaker Aquatic Center in West Lafayette, Ind. The champion will be crowned Saturday.
Since the Wildcats began the season back in October, it’s been nearly impossible to get the coaches and swimmers to talk about anything besides the importance of this meet. The 11 regular-season meets and even the team’s winter training trip to Hawaii were small potatoes compared to the tournament, senior Shelby Clark said.
“Your record going into the tournament really doesn’t matter,” Clark said. “All year, we build up to this one, all-important meet.”
All season, coach Bob Groseth has said this is one of the better teams he’s had in his 13-year tenure with the Cats. Ranked No. 18 nationally, NU figures to do extremely well in the tournament. Last year the Cats finished fourth in the 10-team field — Illinois doesn’t have a team — and Groseth said he has higher hopes for this weekend.
“We were fourth last year and we’d like to be at least third this year,” Groseth said.
While the Cats’ national ranking suggests they are better than last year, the stiff competition this weekend will make it difficult to climb up the final standings. No. 7 Minnesota, No. 10 Michigan and No. 12 Wisconsin are ahead of NU in the national rankings, and the Cats lost to each of those teams during the season. NU got stomped by Minnesota, 203-97, but hung with Wisconsin (121-110) and Michigan (165-133).
A few of NU’s swimmers are the favorites to win their respective races. Freshman Matt Grevers is currently seeded first in the 50- and 100-yard freestyles. Grevers is also the man to beat in the 200 backstroke. Fellow freshman Mike Alexandrov holds the conference’s fastest time in the 200 breaststroke.
“With the decreased amount of training we do before the tournament, the guys are finding themselves having a lot more energy that they don’t know what to do with,” Groseth said. “They’re just waiting for the meet to happen.”
The freshman energy of Grevers and Alexandrov is book-ended by the senior experience of Tony Swanson and Mark Hamming. Swanson, in particular, has experience getting things done at the conference tournament. He holds a Big Ten championships record in the 200 individual medley, set back in 2002 with a time of 1:45.64. Hamming is the conference’s top-ranked swimmer in the 200 butterfly with a time of 1:46.06, which ranks fifth in the nation.
Aside from great individual talent, NU has tremendous strength in its relays, which have been dominant all year. The 400 medley team ranks No. 8 in the nation with a time of 3:16.20. It’s ranked second in the conference, behind only behind Wisconsin, which boasts the nation’s No. 2 400 medley relay squad.
The Cats’ 400 free relay (2:58.14) ranks No. 3 in the nation, behind only Minnesota and Tennessee.
No. 18 NU at the Big Ten championships
Today through Saturday
Boilermaker Aquatic Center
West Lafeyette, Ind.
