Men’s swim team boasts hot streak over opposition

By Jennifer Hutchins

The NIU men’s swim team has been busy blowing the competition right out of the water lately, as well as the Huskies’ record book.

For instance, take NIU’s outstanding performance in the six-team meet held last weekend.

With NIU taking 1,056 points, runner-up Wheaton College followed a distant second with only 782 points. University of Cincinnati, with half of its NCAA qualifiers returning from last season, fell into third with 711. Northwestern had 448, Grand Valley State 259, and Loyola University 136.

According to head swimming coach Dave Clark, the meet was the second biggest of the season.

“Since Cincinnati had so many NCAA qualifiers returning, we had planned on them being pretty tough,” said Clark. “As you can see by the scores, we really didn’t have any trouble.”

As far as anyone could tell, NIU had no trouble at all. Two school records were broken during the meet, as well as two freshman records. The 200-yard breast record was broken by sophomore standout Mark Oosman and the 50-yard free record was shattered by Art Sanchez. Freshman Steve Beck took the meet by storm breaking both the 200-yard backstroke and 500-yard freestyle freshmen records.

“The season is progressing right on schedule and I’m feeling really good with my swimming,” said Sanchez. “I’m already pretty geared up for conference.”