Northwestern
Big Ten Swimming Championships
NU Collects Most Points in Program History
3/6/2021 9:11:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving
COLUMBUS, Ohio. -- Northwestern Men's Swimming and Diving collected a program record, 722 points, at the Big Ten Championships this week. They finished in sixth place, just seven points behind Wisconsin, the fifth place team.
Full Big Ten Championship Results
Saturday Finals
In the 1650 Free, three Wildcats finished faster than the 'NCAA B' cut line. Seniors Jeffrey Durmer and Dongjin Hwang and sophomore Ryan King made up the trio with Durmer finishing eighth out of the field of 33.
Manu Bacarizo finished seventh in the 200 Back Finals, earning a time of 1:42.51 while collecting 23 points for Northwestern.
The sophomore duo of Marcus Mok and Kevin Houseman finished ninth and tenth respectively in the 200 Breast Finals. They both made the 'NCAA B' cut line, and Mok finished with the top 200 Breast time of the season for NU.
To end the event, the Wildcats finished seventh in the 400 Free Relay. Aleksa Bobar, Andrew Zhang, Robert Cecil, and Liam Gately put in the Wildcats' best time of the year while grabbing 46 points.
Saturday Prelims
The Wildcats qualified six swimmers in the 100 Free, 200 Back, and 200 Breast on Saturday morning.
Sophomore Aleksa Bobar made the 'NCAA B' cut line with a time of 43.80, the best NU 100 Free time this season.
Manu Bacarizo finished sixth in the 200 Back, notching a time of 1:42.00, qualifying for the 'A' group in his event.
Marcus Mok was the top qualifier in the 'B' group finishing four tenths of a second shy from being in the top group of the 200 Breast.
Friday Finals
Manu Bacarizo finished third in the 'B' 100 Back Final. The junior qualified for the 'NCAA B' cut line earlier in the season in the 100 Back.
Sophomore Kevin Houseman finished eight in the 100 Breast Finals just six hundredths of a second behind the seventh-place finisher. He collected 22 points for the Wildcats.
Senior Connor LaMastra took bronze in the 200 Fly, crushing NU's best time in the event with a time of 1:42.68. LaMastra took home 27 points for the 'Cats. Sophomore Benjamin Miller was not far behind the senior, taking fifth in the event, grabbing 25 points for the team.
Friday Prelims
Northwestern qualified five swimmers on Friday in the 100 Back, 100 Breast, and 200 Fly.
Kevin Houseman qualified for the 'A' heat in the 100 Breast, putting in his best time of the year at 51.75 seconds. He finished sixth in prelims.
Two Wildcats qualified for the 'A' group in the 200 Fly, Connor LaMastra and Benjamin Miller. The duo finished fourth and fifth with both swimmers beating their season bests.
Thursday Finals
Jeffrey Durmer took sixth in the 400 IM 'A' group, beating the team's season best by a full second. He took home 24 points for the 'Cats. Emils Jurcik made the 'NCAA B' cut line with his season best. Jurcik's time would have been good enough to earn him seventh in the 'A' heat.
Connor LaMastra and Aleksa Bobar took seventh and eighth respectively to earn a combined 45 points for the team. Both beat the standing season best time, but it was Liam Gately out of group 'B' who set the new bar at 1:36.12 while en route to beating the 'NCAA B' cut line.
Thursday Prelims
Three 'Cats qualified for the 'A' group across the 400 IM and the 200 Free.
Jeffrey Durmer destroyed the team best in the 400 IM, finishing with a time of 3:46.13, beating the original record by more than 2.5 seconds.
Wednesday Finals
Emils Jurcik took home the season record in the 200 IM with a time of 1:45.06 while scooping up 16 points for the team.
Marcus Mok and Emils Jurcik both bested the 'NCAA B' cut line in the 200 IM.
Ezra Mizgla also beat the 50 Free 'NCAA B' cut line while setting the best team time of the season with a 19.91.
Senior Connor LaMastra picked up an eight place finish in the 500 Free Finals, corralling 22 points for the Wildcats while besting the NCAA Provisional cut line.
The 400 Medley Relay team collected 44 points en route to an eight place finish. The team headlined by Manu Bacarizo, Kevin Houseman, Connor LaMastra, and Andrew Zhang beat the team's best time by two full seconds.
Wednesday Prelims
Marcus Mok bested his season record in the 200 IM, notching a time of 1:46.43 while qualifying for the final 'B' group.
Connor LaMastra qualified for the 'A' group in the 500 Free, beating his previous best time by more than six seconds.
Tuesday Finals
Yohan Eskrick earned the NCAA qualifying score of 320.00, earning a score of 333.10 in the 3-meter dive, grabbing 14th in the event. Eskrick also snatched an eighth place finish in the 1-meter dive while qualifying for the NCAA Championships with a score of 334.65.
NU took fifth place in the 800 Free Relay, crushing the season best by 10 seconds. The team collected 50 points for the stellar performance.
Players Mentioned
