Northwestern University Athletics
Men's Swimming Begins NCAA Competition on Thursday
3/21/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
March 21, 2001
EVANSTON, Ill. -
Three members of the Northwestern men's swimming team are set to compete at the NCAA men's swimming championships from Thursday through Saturday in College Station, Texas. Prelims will begin at noon each day. Finals for each event will be held in the evening at 7 p.m., and will spotlight the top 16 athletes of each prelim race earlier that day. The swimmers with the top eight prelim times will compete for the championship that evening, while the swimmers with the ninth through 16th-place prelim times will compete in the consolation final.
Freshman Tony Swanson (Coon Rapids, Minn./Coon Rapids) and sophomore Kellan O'Connor (Phoenix, Ariz./Brophy Preparatory) will compete Thursday afternoon in the 200 individual medley. Swanson is seeded 27th with an NU school-record time of 1:47.87. O'Connor is seeded right behind Swanson in 28th with a time of 1:48.07.
Friday's competition will begin with Swanson back in the pool for the 400 individual medley. His school-record time of 3:51.48 seeded him 26th in the field. The next event that afternoon will boast O'Connor in the 100 butterfly, where he is seeded 38th with a time of 48.57. Freshman Aaron McCracken (Naperville, Ill./Central) will debut as he plunges in for the 100 breaststroke. His school-record time of 54.49 seeds him 17th.
Saturday will start with Swanson competing in the 200 backstroke. He is seeded 22nd with a time of 1:44.94. O'Connor plunges in the pool for his best event, the 200 butterfly. He broke the school record three times throughout the season, finishing with a 1:44.92 before NCAA's to seed him ninth. McCracken finishes out Saturday's prelims for the Wildcats in the 200 breaststroke. His time of 2:00.17 seeds him 32nd.
