Men’s swimming and diving head coach Whitney Hite has high expectations for his team coming into the NCAA Men’s Swimming Championship in Austin, Texas, beginning Thursday. UW is coming off a strong showing at the Big Ten Championships in February, when the team broke four school records.
Junior Nick Caldwell broke the school record for 200-yard freestyle, which stood for nearly three decades, with a time of 15:02.16, besting the old record of 15:03.87.
Freshman Cannon Clifton of Irving, Texas, joined in on the fun, breaking the UW 100-yard freestyle record of 43.48 in the event’s preliminaries, eventually tying for 11th place in the event’s final.
Junior Nicholas Schafer, an Australian native, broke his own school record for the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 52.88, good enough for a fifth place finish.
The UW 800-yard freestyle relay also broke school records in the Big Ten Championships with a time of 6:19.22, which was good enough for a second place finish.
Following these strong performances UW finished seventh in the Big Ten Championships with 299.5 points, while defending NCAA Champion Michigan took home the Big Ten crown with 889 points, 324 more than runner-up Indiana.
The Wisconsin women’s team kicked off the Badgers’ NCAA Championship run strong last Thursday, with junior Ivy Martin and the relay team finishing within the top eight in the 50-yard and 200-yard freestyle, respectively. The relay team also set both Big Ten and school records for the 200-yard freestyle, while Martin earned All-American honors for the second straight year.
The second day of competition brought more success for the relay team, again breaking conference records with a time of 3:13.85 in the 400-yard freestyle, good for eighth in the finals.
Wisconsin finished the NCAA tournament in 13th place with a total of 78 points, which put it at third among Big Ten teams, behind only Minnesota and Indiana.
Hoping to emulate the women’s success, the men’s team will be represented by defending NCAA 200-yard backstroke champion, junior Drew teDuits, and the 800-yard freestyle relay team, comprised of freshman Matt Huchins, Caldwell, Clifton and senior Tyler Hines.
teDuits will have high expectations for himself, after seeing success in the Austin pool earlier this year in the Texas Invitational, finishing second in the 200-yard backstroke.
The men’s NCAA Championships will begin Thursday, with the last day of races taking place Saturday.
