Northwestern
Big Ten Championships
Tony Swanson Wins Big Ten Championship in 200 IM
2/28/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
Feb. 28, 2002
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Sophomore All-American Tony Swanson (Coon Rapids, Minn./Coon Rapids) won the 200 IM title at Day One of the Big Ten Championships, breaking a conference record and a school record in the process.
Northwestern is in the midst of a tight race at the top of the standings, currently in fourth place with 134 points. Penn State has 157 at third place, while defending champion Minnesota leads with 197.
Swanson's time of 1:45.64 in the 200 IM was ahead of second place by more than a full second. He broke his own school record, which was a time of 1:46.56, and a Big Ten Championships record, a seven-year-old mark held by Jason Lancaster of Michigan (1:46.02). In addition, Swanson's time was an NCAA "A" standard and broke an Indiana pool record that was previously set by Matt Brown of Purdue in 1997 (1:46.48).
The sophomore led the way as NU dominated the 200 IM. Teammates Mark Hamming (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) and All-American Kellan O'Connor (Phoenix, Ariz./Brophy Prep) both set NCAA "B" standard times, coming in third and fifth with times of 1:47.58 and 1:47.62, respectively.
Two more records fell during the round of finals Thursday night. Senior Adam Kennedy (Flossmoor, Ill./Homewood-Flossmoor) finished fourth in the 50 freestyle with a time of 19.96, an NCAA "B" standard. He brought down the school record of 20.35 set by Steve Steketee in 2001.
In the 500 free, junior Mike Shue (Ft. Myers, Fla./Ft. Myers) finished seventh and broke his own school record with a "B" standard time of 4:23.58. His previous mark had been 4:23.73.
The 200 free relay team broke a record that most of them already held. Swanson, Hamming, Kennedy and senior Nick Barnes (Frankfort, Ind./Frankfort) finished sixth with a 1:20.44 mark, breaking the school record of 1:20.65 set last year by the team of Swanson, Hamming, Kennedy and Steketee.
In the 400 medley relay, the 'Cats finished seventh with a season-best time of 3:16.20, a "B" standard time. Swanson's split time as the leadoff swimmer was 48.15, a new team best in the 100 backstroke.
Another Wildcat who made it to this evening's finals was Barnes, who finished 11th in the 50 free (20.33). Barnes established a career-best in the preliminaries, a 20.20. Sophomore Dan Williams (Hinsdale, Ill./Hinsdale Central) took 16th in the 500 free with a time of 4:33.75. He also had a career-best mark in the preliminary round, clocking in at 4:30.17.
The championships continue Friday with preliminaries at noon and finals at 7 p.m. Real-time results are available on the Big Ten Conference website, www.bigten.org.
