By Chris GentilvisoThe Daily Northwestern
With six Big Ten teams ranked in the top 25 at the start of conference play, Northwestern men’s swimming wasted no time in backing its top ranking.
The No. 8 Wildcats opened their season by downing the defending Big Ten champion No.12 Indiana 163.5-136.5.
“It was a good meet for us,” NU coach Bob Groseth said. “The guys were really fired up for it with Indiana being last year’s champs. There was a lot of energy, and they kept the pressure on.”
NU placed first in 11 of 16 events, led by sophomore Eric Nilsson, who was victorious in all three of his events: the 1000-yard freestyle, 200-yard butterfly and 500-yard freestyle.
After being named to second team All- Big-Ten his freshman season, Groseth expects Nilsson’s skills to sharpen this year.
“The guy just keeps getting better,” Groseth said. “He’s put himself in a position now where he goes in not just expecting to win, but looking to dominate. He’s not looking to be passive, and he shows his aggression out there.”
Matt Grevers and Mike Alexandrov started their senior seasons on solid notes, finishing first in two events each. Alexandrov took the 200-yard freestyle in 1:39.91 and 200-yard breaststroke in 1:58.96. Grevers tied for first in the 100-yard backstroke with a split of 47.24. He capped off his day with a victory in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 20.07.
As the Big Ten schedule deepens, Groseth said the team’s biggest challenges are to maintain the health and success of its strongest swimmers while developing the young core.
“We’re really going to stress that against Purdue and Wisconsin,” he said. “If we’re going to be a force in the Big Ten later on, we’ll need that depth on our team to perform.”
After struggling in its opening bout with No. 1 California, the women’s squad (0-2, 0-1 Big Ten) labored against another tough test, falling to No. 17 Indiana 174-120.
Despite the two losses to start dual-meet competition, coach Jimmy Tierney was pleased with the team’s effort.
“We performed at a really high level,” he said. “We haven’t swam that fast in many meets this early in the season.”
In her second NCAA meet, Kassia Shishkoff flexed her freshman firepower, moving into two top-10 spots in NU’s all-time record books.
Her second consecutive first place time in the 1000-yard freestyle, 9:59.75, was the fifth-fastest time in NU history. She followed that performance with a five-second victory in the 500-yard freestyle,
notching a time of 4:51.85, moving her into ninth place all-time.
“We knew this was going to happen, but maybe not this soon,” Tierney said. “Her times were nowhere near as fast as she’s going to swim. We think that she can be quite the swimmer in the Big Ten and NCAA’s.”
Junior Andrea Hupman took first in the 100-yard freestyle with a split of 50.29, and the 200-yard freestyle, with a time of 1:48.83.
“Her 100 and 200 times were as good as she’s ever been at this time of year,” Tierney said. “That’s quite a feat. She’s swimming in my mind still somewhat
fatigued, but she knows how to race and perform when the gun goes off.”
With No. 25 Purdue coming into Evanston this weekend, Tierney said the team is ready to match up with their third straight top-25 opponent.
“We think we can win a number of events,” he said. “As to how that turns out in points, we’ll wait and see. Dual meet wins and losses aren’t necessarily an indication of Big Ten performance, but it does measure how our athletes perform.”
Reach Chris Gentilviso at [email protected].
