Going into Wednesday’s season-opening meet, NIU men’s swimming coach Dave Clark knew he had better depth than Loyola University. Now he knows exactly how much better.

The Huskies opened the 1989-90 season sailing to a 140-70 dual-meet win over Loyola at Anderson Hall Pool. In total, NIU captured blue ribbons in nine of 13 events and it could have been more. Clark opted to swim several NIU entries as exhibition competitors, thereby limiting the Huskies’ first-place finishes and potential points.

“I’m very happy with the way we swam. We were much faster than we were this time last year and that improvement is good to see,” said Clark. “Going into the meet, everyone knew we had an edge, so that made it harder to get prepared. We also know we’ll have to swim substantially better on Friday.”

NIU finished first and third in the opening 400-yard medley relay for a 13-4 lead that grew to 29-6 after a 1-2-3 finish in the 1,000-freestyle.