Men's Swimming and Diving Tames Wildcats
November 13, 2003 | Men's Swimming & Diving
The 14th-ranked Wisconsin men's swimming and diving team remained undefeated in its Big Ten conference dual meet season by outlasting the 22nd-ranked Northwestern on Thursday night at the UW Natatorium. UW's solid all-around performance in the freestyle and relay events fueled their third consecutive conference victory 121-110.
Eric Wiesner controlled the action in the freestyle events, with victories in both the 200-yard (1:39.39) and 500-yard (4:32.84) freestyle competitions. Big Ten Swimmer of the Week Adam Mania followed up his award-winning performance against Indiana with another impressive performance versus the Wildcats. Mania earned 18 points for the Badgers by winning the 200-yard individual medley (1:50.53) and the 200-yard backstroke (1:46.14). Both of the times broke his own UW Natatorium pool records. Setting pool records has become an old habit for Mania. He has set new pool records in each of the first four home meets of the 2003-04 season.
Mania was once again joined in the record-breaking by his 200-yard freestyle and 400-yard medley relay teammates. The 200-yard freestyle relay team of Matt Marshall, Wiesner, Chris Anderson and Dale Rogers improved on their own pool record by 45 hundredths of seconds, winning in 1:21.31. Wisconsin led by just two points going into the final event, but the first-place finish sealed the victory.
The Badgers opened the meet with an effort from their 400-yard medley relay squad of Mania, Kevin Zakrzewski, Marshall and Rogers that established another pool record. The team improved on its own mark set earlier this season with a 3:16.89 effort.
Senior Pat Torpey came up with a crucial nine points for the Badgers in the 200-yard butterfly. Torpey edged Northwestern's Mark Hamming with a winning time of 1:48.65. Torpey's first-place finish gave the Badgers five points to separate themselves from the Wildcats.
The Badgers start a stretch of four road meets Nov. 21-23 at the Minnesota Invitational in Minneapolis, Minn. Swimming and diving action returns to UW Natatorium on Jan. 30-31 when Wisconsin host the Big Ten Quad Dual meet. The meet is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. on Jan. 30 and at noon on Jan. 31.
