A lot can change in 14 years.
That’s how long it’s been since the fatal bus crash that killed Meghan Beeler and Colleen Hipp, two members of the Notre Dame women’s swimming team, while returning from a meet at Northwestern on a snowy January night.
It would be 2001 before the Irish women’s team finally returned to NU, and another two years before the men made the trek from South Bend to Evanston.
Nearly 14 years since the crash, that tragedy seems long behind both programs.
“The first time that they came to swim here – I told the kids on the team about the background, because I thought they needed to know it,” NU coach Bob Groseth said, “And even then (in 2003) none of those kids knew anything about it.”
Today, the No. 17 Wildcats see the meeting with the No. 19 Fighing Irish as just another dual meet; another stepping stone on the path towards the Big Ten Championships in February. They view the meet as an opportunity for the younger swimmers to build on their racing experience.
The Cats find themselves in a situation similar to that of a year ago. In 2005, NU impressed its coach with a strong showing at Arizona, while last weekend the Cats nearly topped No. 7 Florida at the Dallas Morning News Swimming and Diving Classic. The difference now, Groseth said, is the team’s makeup, which this season consists of 18 freshmen and sophomores out of 23 total swimmers and divers.
“I’d say we’re in a very similar spot (to) last year,” Groseth said. “The seasons, in terms of the meets, parallel themselves very much. In the day-to-day practice, it’s a different team – you have a lot of guys who are high school swimmers who are used to a shorter season who feel like at this point in the year they should be done.”
The luxury of a home meet should give swimmers and divers not only an extra sense of comfort, Groseth said, but a chance to show off their talent in front of a strong crowd of family and friends. Though that’s not to say the dual will be an easy win for the Cats.
“They’ve got a strong team and they always get up for it against us,” sophomore Kyle Bubolz said. “It should be interesting.”
NU is rolling entering tonight’s matchup against Notre Dame, with junior Matt Grevers coming off a strong performance in Dallas that earned him the CollegeSwimming.com National Swimmer of the Week Award. And though history has been unkind to the rivalry, Groseth is confident that this is a new era in NU-Notre Dame swimming.
“It’s a different time,” Groseth said. “It’s over now. We’re re-establishing our rivalry with Notre Dame – and we think it’ll be a great competition.”
Reach Ben Larrison at [email protected].
