Swimming and Diving

Despite falling 117.5 to 181.5 to Wisconsin on Saturday, Northwestern took some positive steps in its first home meet.

“I thought we swam pretty well, regardless of the loss,” freshman swimmer Carter Page said. “We were taking it out … faster than we have in the past. People were taking risks, which is something we like to see.”

Page helped lead the Wildcats’ campaign against the top-ranked Badgers this weekend, clinching first in the 1,000 freestyle with a time of 9:27.36 and edging out the remaining competition by more than five seconds.

His teammate and captain, sophomore Almog Olshtein, who also displayed aggressiveness at this last dual meet of the quarter, agreed with Page.

“We are a close group of guys … because we’re a small team,” said Olshtein. “We care for each other more than we care about only the swims … so when Carter swims, for example, I want to see him succeed.”

Olshtein snagged first in both freestyle events, finishing the 50 freestyle with a time of 20.61 and matching Wisconsin’s Ryan Barsanti at 46.18 in the 100 freestyle.

Although coach Jarod Schroeder said some of the final times showed little improvement and the team struggled to finish races toward the end of the meet, he was satisfied with the approach many of the swimmers took in their races.

“I thought this was probably our best meet in terms of guys racing and getting up and taking races out,” Schroeder said. “That was one of the things we wanted to work on.”

Schroeder also said maintaining an aggressive campaign throughout the remainder of the season is something the team will continue to work on. He said that cannot be fixed instantaneously because the majority of this smaller, younger team has been exposed to such a competitive environment in such little time. Ultimately, Schroeder said he believes the ongoing rehearsal of these key techniques and a willingness to go head-to-head against strong competition is key to the team’s success.

‘If you’re conservative and you don’t take it out with those guys, you’re never going to know if you can do it,” Schroeder said. “The more they can rehearse and do it the right way now at this part of the season, the better.”

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