With 10 high school seniors signing National Letters of Intent, Northwestern has high hopes for the Class of 2014 to lead the team to new heights on a national stage.
The seven swimmers and three divers will help the No. 23 Wildcats recapture the form that propelled them to 19th place in the NCAA Championships two seasons ago. Eight NU athletes, the team’s largest group since 2000, competed against the nation’s top swimmers that year. Last season, junior Ellen Grigg was NU’s lone representative in the tournament.
“We want to get back to that type of squad size where we’re a team at the NCAA Championships, not just a few individuals,” coach Jimmy Tierney said earlier this season.Next year’s squad size of 37 will be the largest in the program’s history.
“It is not necessarily our goal to get larger,” Tierney said. “But we just had a lot of qualified people to come to Northwestern. We had to turn a lot of people down who wanted to come.”
The diving program in particular will have more depth with the addition of Mary Kate Campbell, Hannah Singer and Cosima Lenz, who is the sister of freshman diver Felicitas Lenz.
“We certainly have a goal of striking our diving program with the two Lenz girls,” Tierney said. “They’re national-caliber divers. We’re adding more depth and our program continues to progress every year.”
The younger Lenz and her classmates will hope to have the same impact her older sister has had for the Cats. Earlier this season, Felicitas became the first NU diver in four years to be named Big Ten Women’s Diver of the Week.
“Felicitas has been our strongest diver all year long,” Tierney said. “She’s a very dedicated athlete, and she’s making great strides to being very successful. She’s put herself in a position to compete among the best in the Big Ten, which is probably the strongest in the country for diving.”
On Dec. 22, Lenz reclaimed the Diver of the Week award after finishing first among 11 divers in the one-meter springboard in NU’s holiday dual meet with UCLA and UNLV in Los Angeles.
Along with Lenz, senior Jenn Kocsis was named Big Ten Women’s Swimmer of the Week for the first time, following the Cats’ trip to Florida. Kocsis placed first in the 500- and 1,000-yard freestyles as NU comfortably outraced Florida Atlantic 163-71, Florida International 174-49, Clemson 165-72 and Division-II Findlay 174-27 at Florida Atlantic’s Boca Raton campus.
“Jenn’s been very consistent for us-she’s definitely not a surprise,” Tierney said. Kocsis’ honor was an added bonus from the annual trip to Florida that aims to improve the swimmers’ conditioning.
“The two biggest things (on the trip to Florida) were to continue a long process of getting the girls into top shape and as close to their peak physically as we can both in terms of fitness levels and strength,” Tierney said.
The squad trained for five hours a day to prepare for the quadruple meet. But it was more than just a workout: Tierney said the 10-day trip helped unite the squad.
“We continued to build our team bond and just look for ways to create more than a camaraderie, a sense of team and make sure the girls are as one unit, working hard,” he said.
Returning from the holiday sessions, the squad will now prepare for the Big Ten Championships, which start Feb. 17.
“They’re in very good shape right now,” Tierney said. “We have about six weeks to fine-tune and get them razor sharp and ready for the Big Ten Championships. It will be three to four weeks of hard work.”[email protected]
