Swimming and Diving

As it prepares for its last dual meet of the quarter against Wisconsin on Saturday, Northwestern could be lacking the overall leadership needed to remain successful as the year progresses.

While the Wildcats feature strong leadership on the pool deck and at practice, coach Jarod Schroeder said the team needs an individual willing to step beyond his comfort zone and try to inspire others.

As his younger teammates continue to adjust to their environment, junior captain Stephen Shull agrees with that sentiment, especially with the absence of senior Jordan Wilimovsky. Wilimovsky is gearing up for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.

“(It) creates opportunities for other people to step up and take on that role,” Shull said.

It’s a role that the Cats desperately need to fill after a weekend of tough results. NU fell 231.5-112.5 to Kentucky, 233-105 to Missouri and 178-167 to Southern Illinois last weekend.

Though none of his athletes had disappointing swims, Schroeder said most of the members of the team are complacent with their level of performance and have yet to deliver anything “unexpected.”

“If we’re going to get out of the funk we’re in right now that’s got to happen,” Schroeder said. “If it doesn’t happen, then we’re going to be a really mediocre team in a very fast conference and it’s going to be an ugly season.”

As this four-week training cycle comes to its conclusion, the team has been successful in working on developing aggressive front end speed within a practice setting, a skill that Schroeder believes must become second nature for the squad as they hope to move past this “funk.”

Some progression was made this past weekend, as several freshmen achieved personal-best times, but Schroeder said the Cats still need to deliver more as they approach the end of the year.

This need for the emergence of a real team leader is crucial as NU prepares to take on Wisconsin on Saturday. Sophomore Jonathan Blansfield said the team is ready to meet their coach’s challenge against a strong Badgers team.

“Jarod always says the goal of each week is to get better,” Blansfield said. “So we’re trying each week to get better, and we want to be better at Wisconsin than we were last weekend.”

After sweeping the Wildcats last season and already beating Minnesota this year, Schroeder said Wisconsin has proven to be a fast team with few weaknesses. As such, he said the Cats need to see how they stack up against their competition during their first home meet of their season and to relish in the opportunity to race against such challenging opponents.

“There’s still a learning curve,” Schroeder said. “I’ve got … 20 guys in the pool with 20 different swimming backgrounds, and so they’ve got to come together and train in a different way: my way or coach Sheaff’s way.”

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