Northwestern University Athletics
The Vet: Entry #1
10/30/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
Oct. 30, 2009
Starting my senior season at Northwestern has proven to be much different than the start to my prior seasons. First, we have had major coaching changes, with Kyle Schack being hired as our assistant, and Jarod being promoted to our head coach after Bob accepted the Executive Director position at the CSCAA. Bob brought a wealth of experience to the program, but I am excited to have new energy from our coaches, especially with just one more season left. Second, half of our team is new this year. We have eight new freshmen, and one transfer swimmer. I especially like this, since, as the captain, I have a good deal of influence over a group that has no experience with college or collegiate swimming. So I feel like I can give them a lot of good advice from my own personal experiences three years ago, and really show them the direction in which Northwestern Swimming wants to go.
This past Friday we had our first dual meet against Indiana. We always start our season against Indiana, and I would say it is by far our most anticipated dual meet of the year. Overall, the team performed really well, and including diving events, we won eight of the sixteen events. We only came 36 points short while winning half the events, so we are going to need to make sure we have more depth in each event going forward in the season. Personally, I wasn't too happy with how I swam, but I know what I need to improve on with my sprint freestyle events, and I will be ready to go in two weeks for Purdue.
As for the upcoming weeks, we have two dual meets, and then we finish with the TYR Invitational right before Thanksgiving. The TYR Invitational is a big mid-season meet where we can rest for a few days and really gauge how we are progressing in our events. The team always swims really well, and I expect the same this year. It is personally one of my favorite meets because I always swim really well on two or three days rest, and the format of the meet is more like Big Tens, where there are three sessions, prelims and finals, so it really allows everyone to focus on a few events per day and swim fast.
I will keep updating everyone on our progress throughout the season. GO 'CATS!
Chris
