It’s safe to say the Wildcats own the Klotsche Natatorium.
Northwestern entered the meet with five pool records at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s home pool. Though they lost one record in the 200-meter fly, the Cats added three more and rewrote another in their 166-125 win against the Panthers on Wednesday.
Coach Jarod Schroeder’s adjustment of taking away the break between the training trip and the Cats’ next race paid off nicely for his squad. Senior Charlie Rimkus said he could really notice a difference in the team with the scheduling change and believes they may have found their stride.
“Not having the distraction of going home before school and just coming straight from intense training into the pool at Northwestern was much easier,” Rimkus said. “We had some cobwebs to dust off, but overall we made some noise in there, and we were really high energy and had that swagger.”
NU was finally able to watch its top breaststrokers take over their races this season.
Sophomore Uula Auren and freshman Van Donkersgoed went first and second in the 100- and 200-meter breaststroke with Auren winning the 100 and Donkersgoed winning the 200, both setting pool records in their races. Auren said he is encouraged by his fellow breaststroker’s improvements in his first year.
“Van has been getting better every single meet this season,” Auren said. “It looks pretty good for him with the meets coming up.”
Schroeder said he was thrilled to see the hard work from the training trip pay off for Donkersgoed.
“It was great to see the results he had tonight,” Schroeder said. “He had a great junior year in high school. He was one of the best breaststrokers in the country. He had medical issues his senior year, but it’s great to see him back to health now.”
Donkersgoed wasn’t the only freshman to set a pool record Wednesday. Freshman distance swimmer Jordan Wilimovsky set the pool record in the 1,000-meter freestyle, defeating his opponent by 18.35 seconds and destroying a 13-year-old pool record by more than 10 seconds.
The 200-medley and 400-freestyle relay teams set the other two pool records of the night for NU.
The win gives the Cats momentum heading into their critical showdown with conference rival Iowa. Schroeder said he has his team are already focusing on what’s ahead.
“They’re a measuring stick for us,” Schroeder said of Iowa. “My challenge to the team was to all be on the same page. If we are, we have the opportunity to compete with one of the better teams in the country.”
Even though Schroeder was pleased with setting multiple pool records in Milwaukee, he said he hopes the Cats can set more later in the season.
“It’d be much better if we went into Iowa or some place like that and set some pool records,” Schroeder said, laughing.
