It’s fair to say All-Americans are pretty rare. They don’t exactly come in the mail on a daily basis with free samples of Tide detergent. Despite their rarity, the Northwestern men’s swim team received a slue of All-America nods as the season ended this past weekend at the NCAA Championships in East Meadow, NY.
NU sent eight swimmers to the Championships, and all eight swimmers came home with All-American honors in either an individual or relay event. The Wildcats totaled 13 All-American nods at the three-day meet — the most in school history.
As a whole, the team finished in 11th place — the best final ranking in head coach Bob Groseth’s 13-year tenure at NU.
“This was the best collegiate team I’ve ever coached,” Groseth said. “In terms of times, talent, and senior leadership, this team was phenomenal and the way we finished the year proves that.”
As it did all season, the team was fueled by their young stars, solid senior leadership, and key role players in between.
NU’s super-freshmen Matt Grevers led the way by earning three individual All-American honors. Grevers showed no signs of freshman jitters on collegiate swimming’s grandest stage, as he posted a top 10 finish in his first Championships event, finishing ninth in the 50-meter freestyle with a time of 22.01. The performance was good enough for Honorable Mention All-America honors.
Grevers also received Honorable Mention All-American honors in the 100 freestyle, and was an outright All-American in the 100 backstroke, finishing sixth overall.
Fellow freshman Mike Alexandrov earned Honorable Mention All-American honors in the 100 breaststroke and the 200 and 400 individual medleys.
With their combined six All-American awards, Alexandrov and Grevers were the most successful freshmen duo at the Championships.
Those two freshmen made a big splash in the Championships, but the team was guided by the senior experience of Tony Swanson and Mark Hamming, who were the only current NU swimmers to compete at last year’s Championships.
“In terms of depth, this is one of the fastest meets in the world,” Swanson said. “In the Olympics there will obviously be some fast times at the top, but from top to bottom, I would say NCAA Championships is the best. For us to do so well in it is pretty cool.”
Swanson ended a brilliant college career by earning two Honorable Mention All-American awards in the 100 butterfly and the 200 individual medley for the Cats, which brought his career individual All-American awards total to six.
“Mark and Tony and our entire senior class have been great leaders for us all year,” Groseth said. “It was nice to have their experience there to rely on, and the rest of the guys kind of followed their lead.”
Hamming turned in a solid individual performance in the 100 butterfly, finishing 23rd overall, and was a big part of the 400 medley relay, which placed sixth on its way to All-American status.
“That was the best swim of the season for that relay,” Groseth said. “They did even better than Big Ten Championships, which I thought would be tough to do.”
Other individual performances included sophomore Brian Davis finishing 25th in the 400 IM, junior Louis Torres taking 29th in the 100 breaststroke and junior Matt Wever finishing 47th in the 200 free.
“At the beginning of the season, I thought that we could finish better than 15,” Groseth said. “These guys met those expectations, but exceeded them in a way too.”
