Actually, Mike Burt does wear glasses. So there’s nothing wrong with his eyesight before anyone questions his happiness following the NIU women’s swimming squad’s 169-126 loss to the University of Wisconsin.

Again, the Huskie coach did see the final score, but he also saw a vast improvement by his team during Wednesday’s Anderson Hall pool dual meet. There was plenty of stopwatch improvement against one of the Big Ten’s title contenders.

“We just did a much, much better job of competing. We swam better, that means faster. We competed, which means we weren’t intimidated by Wisconsin’s strength and tradition. We really looked like a team. Yes, we lost and we do have a long way to go, but we went at them head to head,” Burt explained.

“We came out of the blocks right from the start. That’s not only the best 400-yard medley relay we’ve swum this year, it’s better than I thought we could do this early.”

Although Wisconsin took the opening relay with a 4:07.36 clocking, NIU’s 4:08.12 surpassed Burt’s expectations. Although the Badgers took blue ribbons in the next six events, often times the Huskies were very close. For example, the 200-yard butterfly where Margaret Reece touched first in 2:11.24 with NIU’s Jeanne Kuipers next at 2:11.81.

The Huskies’ lone double winner for the evening was Pam Jackson, who recorded first-place finishes in both the 50 and 100-yard freestyle runs (:24.89 and :54.61, respectively). NIU’s Jenni Horoky took first in three meter diving with a 219.23 score while Kim Bell was the other NIU individual winner taking the 200-yard individual medley (2:17.92).

NIU also picked up first place in the 400-yard freestyle relay which closed the meet with Jackson, Stacey Hartzer, Beth Dragas and Kristin Scholz combining for a 3:42.33 performance.

The loss did drop the Huskies to 1-2 in dual-meet competition with a demanding Saturday (Nov. 17) 1 p.m. road meet at the University of Missouri next on the agenda.