Senior Kassia Shishkoff will spearhead Northwestern’s charge for a fifth consecutive TYR Invitational Title. With seven individual event wins this season, Shiskoff is arguably NU’s top performer this season.
She said she is “definitely not” in top form yet physically, but she has high expectations for the TYR Invitational, which will take place at Norris Aquatics Center Friday through Sunday. The Wildcats will host Michigan State, Kenyon College, Cleveland College, Iowa State, and last week’s opponent Illinois-Chicago.
“I personally want to get two, maybe three (NCAA) ‘B’ cuts if I’m doing really well,” Shishkoff said. “Maybe four… if I got two or three B cuts, I’d be pretty happy.”
Achieving her personal goals and taking part in relays would make Shishkoff among the favorites to be named Swimmer of the Meet. Last year, Shishkoff was recognized as the TYR Invitational’s top performer, her 111 points being 33 points more than her nearest competitor’s score.
“If she’s not one of the top ones then something’s wrong – she’s not swimming the level we expect,” coach Jimmy Tierney said.
But Tierney expects similar levels of performances from other members of the squad.”I think some of her teammates will challenge her as well,” he said. “It’ll be interesting to see.”
NU enters the TYR Invitational as the favorite, ranked No. 23 in the country by the College Swimming Coaches Association of America’s dual meet poll. None of the weekend’s opponents were featured in the top 25.
In last season’s edition of the tournament, Michigan State and Kenyon were the only visitors. NU took the tournament with 1630 points compared to the Spartans’ 1259.5 and Kenyon’s 711.
“(Michigan State) came in rested, ready to swim fast and posted some terrific times,” Tierney said. “I’m assuming they’re going to be ready to go again.”
Even with this year’s expanded opposition, Tierney admitted his side was the favorite heading into the tournament. But he was on guard against complacency creeping into the team.
“We haven’t talked to the team about that kind of stuff,” he said of the rankings. “It’s more a measure against ourselves and our expectations and what our goals are to take another step forward.”
Leading the Cats forward this tournament with Shishkoff will be co-captain Emily Wong.In the last day of the 2008 TYR Invitational, Wong toppled the Norris Center 100-yard freestyle record. Her 49.74 time lifted her above previous record-holder Andrea Hupman.
Wong’s record met the NCAA ‘B’ provisional qualifying cut of last season. That is something she will hope to repeat this weekend.
“Certainly I know she wants to get faster and get under the NCAA ‘B’ cut consideration times right now, just to put her in the field for NCAAs and I think she’s got a good shot at it,” Tierney said.
Big performances from the likes of Shishkoff and Wong will be key to success, but Tierney said he expects others to play a part as well.
“The usuals will probably be the biggest point-scorers like Emily Wong and Kassia (Shishkoff) and that whole group that we’ve seen all year,” Tierney said. “But I think there’s a lot of other people that are making strides and can play a big role for us this weekend.
“Hopefully, we’re going to be really pleased with what we see by the time we get to Sunday.” [email protected]
