Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
UIC
Men's Swimming and Diving Puts Out The Flames
1/18/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
Jan. 18, 2002
CHICAGO, Ill. - Winning all but a single event, the Northwestern men's swimming and diving team improved their overall record to 5-1 with a 143-93 victory at Illinois-Chicago Friday night.
Three Wildcats broke the UIC pool record in the 200 butterfly event. The previous time of 1:50.73 had held since 1999, until Kellan O'Connor (Phoenix, Ariz./Brophy Prep) won the event in 1:47.62 and was followed by Mike Shue (Ft. Myers, Fla./Ft. Myers) with a time of 1:49.43 and Mark Hamming (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest), who came in at 1:49.91.
Despite suffering a recent illness, O'Connor's time was an NCAA "B" Standard time and is also the best mark recorded among the team this season.
Two other NU recorded new season-best times with victories in their events-sophomore Tony Swanson (Coon Rapids, Minn./Coon Rapids) in the 200 freestyle (1:40.75) and sophomore Aaron McCracken (Naperville, Ill./Naperville Central) in the 100 breaststroke (57.21).
Freshman Louis Torres (Morton Grove, Ill./Niles West) faced his older brother Paul, UIC's team captain, in the 100 and 200 breast events. The elder Torres emerged victorious in a rematch of what took place earlier in the season, when the siblings went head-to-head in the 300 breast relay at the NU Duals and Louis won by .02 seconds. Paul Torres finished behind McCracken in the 100 breast and won the 200 breast, the only event in which UIC took top honors.
Freshman Phil Mercier (Tucson, Ariz./Salpointe) took home a victory in the 500 free with a lifetime-best time of 4:37.11. Freshman Nick Eggen (Phoenix, Ariz./Arcadia) also picked up a pair of victories in the 100 and 200 backstroke events.
NU is now looking toward next weekend's two-day meet at Iowa.
"We need to set high expectations at Iowa and meet them," head coach Bob Groseth said. With the Big Ten Championships quickly approaching, "being OK is not good enough."
