Northwestern thought facing No. 15 Iowa at this point in the season allowed them to get a good look at what they could be facing in the Big Ten Championships.
But the only good look the Wildcats got was of a Hawkeye swim cap gliding in front of them to the finish as NU fell to Iowa 178-120 in the Norris Aquatic Center on Saturday.
Following a meet where the Cats won nine of 14 individual races against Notre Dame, the squad followed up with only five victories, three by junior Charlie Rimkus (200 Fly, 200 IM, 500 free) and two by freshman Uula Auren (100 and 200 breast).
Coach Jarod Schroeder has gone from being pleasantly surprised by Auren’s performances to expecting wins from him regularly.
“We knew he was a good 50 and 100 breaststroker,” Schroeder said. “That wasn’t as much of a surprise as the 200 breast. But now that he’s been doing pretty well in it, the expectations rise. He’s been doing a really good job in managing those type of things. Missouri (NU’s next opponent) has got a really good breaststroker, so it’ll be fun facing him. Uula hasn’t been beaten in the 100 breast yet this season.”
Auren refused to remain frustrated by the Cats’ two-meet losing streak. He said he knows good things are coming their way.
“As you get better, at some point you are going to start winning,” the freshman star said. “After a certain point you just win. If we just keep on getting better meet by meet and continue this into next year, we will be winning.”
This was the Cats’ third meet in three weeks, and Rimkus said he believes that at full rest, they have a chance to take down this Hawkeye squad in Big Tens.
“Iowa swam really well,” Rimkus said. “I don’t think they are going to go a lot faster at Big Tens, but we have to expect that they will. When we rest and taper, we will be on a more even playing field.”
Even though NU was physically worn down coming into this meet, some swimmers still managed to improve some of their season-best times, and the divers tossed in strong performances.
“We were a little faster in most events than we were in Notre Dame,” Schroeder said. “We want to continue to progress forward. Our divers went 1-3 on the 1-meter board and 2-3 in the 3-meter. We ended up getting 19 out of the 38 points in diving so that was a push. Their swimmers just outswam us today.”
The Cats were without junior Jan Hanulik and freshman John Kim, which forced Schroeder to make line up changes. Hanulik, who usually races in freestyle and backstroke events, is listed as day-to-day, but his status for next weekend is very much up in the air.
“He’s day to day, ” Schroeder said. “Right now, I’m assuming no.”
The Cats end their regular season with a home double-dual meet against Denver and No. 14 Missouri in Evanston starting Friday.
